Love Endures Through Every Circumstance
by Penguins.Are.Lovely
Summary: "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13: 7 That's what I thought, at least, with Edward. Now, I'm not religious or anything, but can Paul really prove that we can get through anything?
1. Chapter 1

**Bella POV**

I am now a graduate of Forks High School. I have officially survived high school. Barely.

Now that I have survived that, I have to survive this dreaded graduation party that Charlie insist I have. "Your mother is flying cross country to come to your graduation; you should have a graduation party. If not for yourself, then for her." He had said. She isn't even coming because something came up with Phil that was more important. He got injured and has to get surgery now.

"Fine, dad, but I'm not inviting a lot of people." I said.

Angela is the first to arrive. Jessica and Mike come a few minutes later with Eric along with others. We talk, eat and just chill for a while. Nothing too fun. Charlie is at work and he warned me about what would happen if we got into any alcohol, not that I would anyway.

I keep looking out the front window for another car to pull up. I had invited Jake, my best friend, but he has yet to show. I haven't seen or talked to him for a few weeks. Things are getting strange. He said that he would be here, but it's been over an hour and there has been no sign of him.

"Bella, why do you keep looking out the window?" Angela asks.

I turn back around and say, "I was seeing if another friend was going to show up. I guess not."

People start leaving a while later. Jessica and Mike say that they are going to another party. They ask if I was going but I tell them no. I want to visit Jake and see what is up with him. I get in my truck as soon as the last person to leave is out of sight from the house and start heading for La Push.

The entire way there I think, _Not one phone call or text. Not in two weeks. What could you possibly be so busy with that you can't even call? I wonder if Sam got to him. He said that he'd never join Sam's club. Of course, Edward said that he'd never leave me nine months ago. But at least Edward told me he was leaving and I would never hear from him again. Damn Jake. Damn Sam. Damn Edward. Damn paper cut. Damn, damn, damn!_

When I pull up to the familiar red house, I can clearly see people in the small living room. Someone I don't recognize pulls the curtain back and says something then puts the curtain back.

I shut the engine off and walk to the door. I put my hand up to knock, but it open before I can. Jake is at the door. Wow he grew. He isn't wearing a shirt and I can see that he has more muscle than he did even a week ago. His hair is cut short, way shorter than before. He also has what looked like a tribal tattoo on his right shoulder. Finally I look at his face.

"Bella, what are you doing here?"

I shrug. "I haven't seen you for a while and you didn't show up to my graduation party today. I just wanted to see what was up."

"Bella, now really isn't a good time. "

"Jake, who's here?" someone yells from the living room.

Jake makes a small sigh and steps aside. "Come in," he says.

I step into the house and walk into the living room. I am greeted with three more guys with no shirts on. I can feel my cheeks become hot as I blush and I don't make eye contact. Jake comes up from behind me. "Bella, this is Sam, Jared and Paul." He points to each one as he says their names. Jared is the one that was in the curtain.

I say hello and continue looking at my shoes, still being careful not to make eye contact with anyone. They don't have shirts on and it is awkward. Jake tells me that I can sit down so I do.

"Bella Swan," Jared says. I finally look up at my name. "Wow. Never thought we would get to meet you."

"You are all that Jake talks about." Paul says with a smirk and then laughs a little.

I look at him in the eye. Whatever I am about to say is lost the second I look into his eyes. I just sit there, staring at Paul and Paul staring at me. Paul has big brown eyes that I know I will never forget. Something inside tells me that life is about to get interesting again, but I am ok with that.

Then I hear laughter come from Jared and I realize that I have been staring at him for too long.

"That is great! Paul of all people!" Jared says between laughs and he seems to find something amusing, though I cannot figure out what.

"Shut up, Jared." Sam said and he immediately stops.

I hear a growl come from Jake. What is going on? Did I miss something? And since when does Jake hang out with Sam? Sam stands up and tells Jake and Paul to go outside with him. Jake stands up quickly and goes with Sam following behind. Paul takes one more look at me before he goes. I suddenly feel a little emptiness when he leaves.

Jared continues laughing as soon as they are out the door.

"What's going on?" I ask.

Jared stops laughing for just enough time to say, "You'll find out soon." Then he says quietly, "Kim will love this."

I hear yelling from outside. "It's not my fault!" I hear Paul yell.

"I don't care!" Jake shouts.

"Jacob, it isn't his fault. Get over it." Sam says.

There is a moment of silence before Jake says, "You better not screw this up, Paul." Jake comes in the house, slamming the door and going to his room, slamming that door too.

Sam and Paul come in after him. Billy comes out of the kitchen. "What the hell is wrong with him?" he asks.

Sam goes over to him and whispers something in his ear. I really wish I knew what is going on. I look at Paul to ask, but he just smiles and I lose all train of thought again.

"Hey, Bella, we're having a bonfire on Wednesday down at the beach. End of the school year kind of thing. Do you want to come? It's at six."

I can't deny him and I don't know why. "Sure. Thanks for the invite. Um. I should get going."


	2. Chapter 2

I get in my truck and just sit there for a minute, wondering what just went on in the house. Something happened and I didn't know what. All I do know is that Jake is pissed off at Paul about it, but it wasn't Paul's fault at what happened. This is all very confusing.

The other thing that is confusing is that I don't know what happened between Paul and I. Literally the second I looked into his eyes it's like my entire world changed. One minute I was still a little bit depressed about Edward's absence, and the next it's like all I can think about is Paul. Now, Paul isn't that bad looking. He has dark hair, skin and eyes. His muscles are defined and I can just tell he goes to the gym often. In a way he is just like most of the other boys of La Push. In other ways, such as his smile and laugh, he is his own person.

Whoa, Bella, slow down there. You just meet him and barely spoke a sentence to him.

I drive back to my house in a daze. I am again feeling a little empty on the inside. I didn't get the feeling until I was away from Paul and I begin to ponder this too. I am excited to go to the bonfire in a few days, knowing that Paul will be there. Not only do I want to see him, I want to know what is going on between him and Jake and why they were yelling at each other. I will have to get him alone for that. I don't want to ask around Jake, knowing that it might set him off again.

The cruiser is in the driveway when I get home. Charlie is eating leftovers at the kitchen table while reading the paper. I go into the kitchen, grab a glass and get some water.

"Where have you been, Bella?" he asks. It isn't an accusing or angry voice; he is merely curious.

"I went to visit Jake."

"That's good. Did he not come to your party today?"

"No. He had some visitors when I got there."

"Oh. You didn't intrude, did you?"

"Of course not. I would've left, but someone asked who was at the door, so he invited me in."

"Ok. As long as you weren't bothering them."

I run upstairs to get a shower and get ready for bed. I do all of my best thinking in the shower, so I begin to reflect a little on the day. I dreaded my graduation party and didn't want it to happen. Jake didn't show up and I was a little hurt by it. He is the one that has almost stitched the hole inside that Edward left. Then I meet Sam, Paul and Jared. I thought it was weird that Jake would have Sam at his house because the only thing that Jake had to say about Sam was that he was the reason that Embry wasn't hanging out with him and Quil anymore and he didn't like Sam for that reason. Then I looked into Paul's eyes. Everything seemed to change at that point. It was like everything is this world didn't matter anymore. Edward didn't matter. Jake didn't matter. My anger and sadness against the Cullens wasn't even a thought in my mind and I didn't care that Jake was hanging out with Sam. _Edward who? _I think.

After brushing my hair and teeth, I mess around on my computer for a bit. There is nothing else to do so I go to bed a little early.

I wake up the next morning and go downstairs to get something to eat. Charlie has already gone to work so I am home alone all day. I grab a box of cereal and pour the remains of the box into a bowl. I also pour the remains of the milk in. I notice that we were getting low on food, so after I eat and get ready I head off to the store.

When the food is purchased, brought home and put away, I quickly realize that there is nothing to do. I kind of hope that the rest of summer won't be like this- boring and uneventful, other than work. I don't have any plans for college; after the Cullens left I really had no aspirations at all. Once Jake and I started hanging out, I considered it but only briefly. I had no idea where I would've wanted to go or what to major in. Somewhere cheap, I had told myself. But what to major in? English was a maybe. Perhaps journalism. I even considered psychology at one point, but I decided that that just wasn't the career for me. So finally I just decided that I would take the semester off and maybe start in the spring.

I have to leave for work in a few minutes so I get ready and leave for MC Sports. Charlie laughed at me when I told him that I got the job there in January. He thought it odd that I would be working at a sports store. I thought it kind of funny too, but they were the only place hiring other than the store that Mike's parents own and I didn't really want to work with Mike.

Summer is the busy season so I expect to be working a lot. This is good because it will keep me away from home. I also thought that I would be able to hang out with Jake this summer, but I am not sure how that is going to work out. He seemed kind of off yesterday and I am wondering what is up with him hanging out with Sam and his gang. But then he got mad at Paul and Sam was mad at both of them- I think he was mad at both of them or maybe he was just mad at Jake. Either way, things seem to have changed in the week that I hadn't seen him.

My thoughts keep my mind occupied until a customer comes up to check out.

"Did you find everything you needed?" I ask.

"Yes I did, Bella," the person replies.

I recognize the voice and look up. It's Paul. "Hey," I smile.

"Hey. Are you still coming to the bonfire tomorrow?" he smiles back and I'm speechless for a moment.

"Yes," I finally stutter, making a fool of myself. "I am. Um, $27.63."

"Good," he says handing me the money. I give him his change and bag the pair of shorts he is getting. "Have a good day."

"You too." I say as he turns around to walk out of the store.

As soon as he's in his car, a black Ford F-150, a smile creeps onto my face.

I can't explain my new infatuation with Paul. Literally the second I looked into his eyes I liked him. I think about him constantly, even though I have only met him once- twice now- and I really don't know why. Maybe it's the smile or the eyes. Maybe it is something else, but whatever it is I like it and I'm happy that I will be seeing him again tomorrow.

The rest of my shift seems to pass by quickly and soon I'm on the way home. I cook dinner as Charlie reads the paper like he always does. We eat dinner mostly in silence. We ask each other how work was and that is about it.

"Oh. One of Jake's friends invited me down to a bonfire tomorrow night and I said that I'd be there. Will you be ok by yourself for dinner?" I ask.

"Yeah. I'll be fine. Who invited you?"

"His name is Paul. He was one of the guys that were at Jake's house yesterday when I was over there."

"Do you know what time you'll be home?" he eyes me.

"No. It's at six. I don't think I'll be out too late. I'll be home by midnight, I promise."

"Bella, you're 18 and graduated from high school. I'm not going to dictate you forever. Go out. Have fun. Come home whenever you want to. You know my only rules."

"I know. Don't get drunk or do drugs. Just because you're my father doesn't mean that you won't arrest me because I'm underage. I know, dad."

"Good," he nods. "You're a smart kid."


	3. Chapter 3

The bonfire is only two hours away and I am debating on what to wear. I figure that I should dress at least decently so I decide on a pair of jean shorts and a t-shirt. After a shower I get dressed and make sure that Charlie can find the leftovers in the fridge. I know that he will probably opt for ordering pizza, but it's the thought that counts.

I jump in the truck and drive to La Push. When I walk down to the beach, I can see that only a few people are already there and roasting hotdogs. There's a table full of buns and chips and other foods. There are also a few coolers set out. I look at how many people are here and then I look at how many buns packages are on the table. There must more people coming because that is a lot of hotdog buns for not a lot of people, I think.

"Hey, Bella." Jared calls and waves me over.

"Hi," I say as I walk over.

"There's hotdogs in the red cooler and more sticks on the tables if you want one."

"Thanks." I don't want to be rude so I take a hotdog and a stick to make one. I get a plate and put some chips and my hotdog on it, also grabbing a drink before I sit down on one of the hay bales that are sitting there.

Jared and Sam are the only ones here that I know already. There are two girls, too that I don't know. Jared and Sam introduce them as Emily and Kim; Kim is Jared's girlfriend and Emily is Sam's wife. Sam and Emily seem awfully young to be married but I let that pass deciding that it is none of my business and that maybe I only think this because of what my mother always says about young marriage.

Two more people show up, Seth and Leah Clearwater. I learn that they are siblings and that Harry is their dad. Charlie is good friends with him, but I never met Seth and Leah. Seth seems really nice; he is young, only fifteen, I think, and he just seems like a really happy person. Leah, however, doesn't seem to share her brother's personality, not that I am going to judge her just from this one meeting.

Jake and two others show up. Jake introduces them as Quil and Embry. Quil is holding a little girl named Claire and I wonder if she is his daughter, but when he introduces her he says that she is Emily's niece and he is just babysitting her while Sam and Emily are setting up here.

Everyone starts to grab food and chat. I am quickly included in conversations, answering questions about myself when asked. Kim and Emily are really the only ones talking to me much. Jake is kind of avoiding me, but he glances over at me occasionally and he asks how Charlie is doing.

When Paul shows up Jake seems to avoid me even more and he keeps giving Paul dirty looks. I don't know what his problem is with Paul and I probably don't want to know.

Paul greets me and he is just as nice as the other two times that I saw him, other than when he and Jake were fighting. I let that slide because I don't know the situation but I just have a feeling that it has something to do with me because Jake seemed fine until I got there and Jared said that I would know soon enough about why they were fighting. I am so confused.

I think I know why everyone is La Push is so big. They can eat! Even Leah keeps shoving hotdogs down and now I know why there are so many hotdog buns. I stare down at my plate. I only ate one hotdog and some chips. But everyone else, except maybe Emily and Kim, ate way more than that.

I continue to talk to Emily and Kim when Paul comes up behind me.

"Bella."

I turn around to face him "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?" he tilts his head to the side slightly.

"Sure."

He motions for me to follow him down the beach away from everyone. Now, normally when a guy asks you to follow him and you're going away from the crowd, that's the time to worry. Strangely, though, I feel completely at ease with Paul. As we are walking, I feel the urge to hold his hand, but I don't because I think that it'd be weird.

We continue walking for a while. We are well out of seeing range from anyone and we go into someone's backyard.

"Paul, didn't you want to talk to me about something?" I question.

"Yeah, give me a minute to think of how I'm going to say this." Worry seems to be on his face and I don't know why. "Ok. Um. Do you know any of the tribe's legends?"

Briefly I have a flashback from Jake and me walking on the beach so long ago when I first moved here. "Not much." I admit.

"Ok. Well, you see, we are descended from wolves. Call me crazy, but it's true. And because of this," he pauses and lets out a breath. "I'm a werewolf."

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? A werewolf?"

"Yeah. I could show you of you'd like."

I nod. He tells me to turn around and I do. After a minute, I hear a ripping sound and I kind of worry. Then something nudges me on the hand. A giant, taller than me, dark silverwolf is standing next to me. I touch its head just to make sure that it is real. Sure enough, Paul hasn't lied.

"Wow," I whisper quietly. Why am I not surprised? I think over this question for a second. Well, my ex-boyfriend and his entire family are vampires. I am a magnet for anything that isn't considered normal for other people like Angela or Charlie."Hi, Paul." I scratch behind his ear.

He backs away then and turns his head in circles. I turn around and Paul is back in his human form. "Believe me now?"

"Yeah, I do. I guess it doesn't come as a surprise. After all, my ex is a…" I trail off.

"A vampire?" he questions.

My head snaps up when he says the word. How does he know?

"Bella, I know about them. I know about the Cullens. Damn leeches. Vampires are the reason that us wolves exist."

"Who else is a wolf?"

"Sam, he's alpha. Jake is beta. The idiot wouldn't take his rightful role." He shakes his head and lets out a small laugh. "Dumbass. Embry is a wolf too, and Leah, Quil, Jared and Seth."

"How long have you been a wolf?"

"About a year."

"When you said that vampires are the reason you exist, what did you mean?"

"In order to be a wolf, you have to get the gene. Billy and Harry Clearwater, as well as my father, all have the gene, but they were never wolves because vampires weren't in the area when they were our age. However, the Cullens were near, as is one other vampire currently. So the gene was activated, causing us lucky ones to transform."

"When did Jake start phasing?" Maybe this explained some things?

"About two weeks ago."

"So is that why he avoided me for two weeks?"

"Yes. Don't blame him, though. It's really not his fault. You can blame Sam, but he was only doing it for your protection. Did you see Emily's face, how it's scarred?" I nod. "Sam did that by accident. We can phase voluntarily, but in the beginning, we phase mostly out of anger. He got angry and phased when Emily was too close. It was totally by accident, of course, but he doesn't want that to happen to anybody else. So anyone on the outside, Sam doesn't want us to have contact with. Including you."

"Well, if I am an outsider, then why are you telling me all this?"

"Because there's another legend. It involves you, Emily and Kim."

What could the three of us possibly have in common? "What legend is that?"

"It's called imprinting. It's kind of like," he pauses looking for the right words to say. "Love at first sight, I guess you could call it. But it doesn't have to be love love. It could be friend love, sibling love or whatever. It just depends on what the imprint wants."

"And you're telling me this because?" Then it clicks. "You imprinted on me?"

"Yes, I did."

"Could you explain this a little more please?"

"Sure," he smiles. "I imprinted on you, Sam on Emily and Jared on Kim. I imprinted on you the second we looked into each other's eyes. That's when it happens. You look into the eyes of your soul mate and your entire world changes. You would be anything for your imprint. Lover. Brother. Friend. Anything. Whatever she wants."

"We're soul mates." I sat it quietly. I try to wrap my head around everything. Surprisingly I am able to comprehend it all.

"But it doesn't have to be that way. Like I said, I could be a brother or a friend or whatever. It's up to you. And you can always change your mind. And no matter what, I'm not going to try to sway you either way because I can't."

I stand there for a minute thinking. Going from having a relationship with a vampire and getting my heart crushed by it and then going into a relationship with a werewolf doesn't really seem appealing to be honest. But there is just something about Paul. Something that I can't explain. Maybe it is how I feel around him. I feel like I can be myself whereas with Edward, I was always hiding in me, afraid to say the wrong thing for fear that there would be a conflict. Maybe it is something else, but I just feel comfortable around him despite only knowing for three days. And every time he leaves I feel like something is missing. Maybe I need this. Forget about Edward. Forget about the rest of the Cullens and finally move on with life completely.

But then another thought occurs to me. How many times can I take my heart being broken? When Edward left, I don't even know how I could've functioned. I wasn't myself at all. I was so depressed. I think I even had a brief thought of suicide once. The thought didn't last long but it's the thought that I was that depressed that made me think about this. When Jake stopped talking to me, I was hurt and confused about that, which somehow seemed to be worse in a least when Edward left, I knew the reasons why and that I would no longer have contact with them. But with jake, I had nothing to go on. I decide to take a chance with Paul.

"Paul, we've only known each other for three days, but I feel different with you anyway. Definitely better than with Edward. Damn leeches, indeed." He smiles at the line I stole. "I don't know what's in store for me now; I do want to find out. I want someone to love me like I know that they should and I think that someone is you."

He has a cute grin on his face. "So, are you free Friday?" he asks. "Do you want to go out? We could go out to dinner if you'd like."

"Yeah, I'd like that."


	4. Chapter 4

"I see you're wearing the shorts you bought yesterday." I comment. We are just coming into eyesight of everyone at the bonfire.

"Yeah, I accidently ruined another pair when I when I phased. It was right after you left Jake's the other day. I'll have to visit you there more often."

"What were you guys fighting about?" I never got the answer to this. I hadn't really gotten to say much because of what Paul was telling me earlier.

"Yeah, Jake was pretty pissed off. He wouldn't get it through his head that it wasn't my fault though."

"Yeah, I got that. How is he now?"

"Still pissed. He'll come around though. He has too."

"Jared seemed pretty amused about it."

"He would. You see, I'm kind of seen as the hot head of the pack. I guess I get that from my father. So Jared probably thought that it was funny that I, the hotheaded one, would imprint."

We get back to the party. People are starting to clear out. I look at my cell phone and see that it is nearing 11:45. "I need to get going. I told my dad I would be home by 12."

"Ok. I'll walk you back to your car."

My car is up a hill and it's dark. I trip a few times going up, but Paul catches me every time. "Are you always this clumsy?" he chuckles.

"You don't know the half it," I say.

When we get to the car, I see a smirk on his face. "I know, make fun of the truck all you want, but I love it."

"I didn't say a word."

"But you smirked." I point out.

"I may have made a slightly negative looking face at it."

"Exactly." I open the door and slide in. Paul continues to stand at the open door.

"You know, if we're going to do this, I'm going to need your number."

"Right." I pull my phone out of my pocket as he pulls his out of his. We exchange phones and put each other's numbers in. We hand the phones back.

"I'll pick you up on Friday. 5 o' clock?"

"That sounds good."

He closes the door for me while I turn on the ignition. I back out of the parking lot, starting for home. I start to think about all that Paul had said tonight. Werewolf. Wow. I am never going to get away from the supernatural, am I? Not only that, but first I thought that Edward was my soul mate. Now I _know _that Paul is because of the imprint. It is a lot to take in.

Something occurs to me then; Paul said there was a vampire in the area currently. I know that it can't be one of the Cullens. Edward made it perfectly clear that they would not interfere with my life anymore. So I wonder. Who could it be? Maybe it is just someone passing through. Maybe some friends looking for the Cullens, but not able to find them because they aren't here. One other thought passes through my head. I shiver. I will never forget that blazing red hair. I know that Victoria being in the area is a possibility, but I never let myself linger on the thought. She would've gotten to me by now if the Cullens aren't here to protect me. But does that really matter? Is she trying to come up with some plot to kill me? Or maybe she doesn't know that the Cullens are no longer here to protect me. Either way I stop thinking about it.

The porch light is on at the house. I hear the TV in the living room and see Charlie asleep on the couch. I wake him up to let him know that I am home and so that he can get into bed. I also go to bed, thinking of the many things running through my head. Vampires and werewolves and imprinting and the list just keep going on and on. I wonder if witches are real too. I laugh. "I wouldn't be surprised." I say to myself.

I crawl into bed and I am anticipating the dreams to come. Almost every night since Edward left, almost a year ago, I have had dreams about him and the Cullens every night. Some of them are good. One time I dreamed that I had beat Emmett in an arm wrestling match. Obviously I know that I had no chance at all of actually doing it. Others, though, are nightmares especially the ones in the beginning. I used to worry Charlie because of the screaming. It even got to the point that he stopped waking up and slept right through the screams. The dreams started to slowly go away when Jake and I started to hang out, but they still came. Usually they would involve him somehow.

It is different tonight, though. Jake and Edward have nothing to with it. Paul and I are walking on the beach, hand in hand. We hear screams come from behind us and turn around. Two small children come running to us screaming, "Mommy! Daddy!" Both kids run into our arms; Paul and I both have smiling faces.

I shoot up in bed. Initially, I want to think it is such a nice and happy dream. Anyone else would. Instead, I can only think of how odd it is. I am already having these dreams? We haven't even officially gone out yet and I am dreaming about the kids that we will have. I have only _just _learned everything about us today and I am dreaming this.

My second thought is do I even want kids? The thought never really occurred to me; Edward was always telling me that was one sacrifice that I would be making if I became a vampire and how much it hurt Rosalie and Esme not to be able to have any. But I always brushed the thought off. No, I don't want kids. I really only see them as a nescience. I babysat the neighbor's boys a few times and that's when I decided that I don't really like kids. I hope that Paul is ok with that. Oh my goodness, Bella! Stop thinking about it so soon!

I drop my head back onto the pillow and go back to sleep.

I have just gotten out of the shower and I am going downstairs to switch laundry over and start folding what is in the dryer. There is a knock at the door, but I'm not expecting any visitors to come today. I look out the window and see there is no car in the driveway, so I figure it is one of the neighbors coming to ask something. When I open the door, Jake is standing there.

"Can I come in? I need to talk to you about some things."

I move out of the way and motion for him to come in. We go into the living room and sit down. We stare at each other in silence for a minute before I say, "Are you going to start talking or what because I have plenty of questions to ask you."

"Let me talk. I can probably answer some of your questions." He doesn't talk for another minute. I am beginning to get impatient. "Bella, I'm sorry that I was pissed off when you were at my house and I'm sorry that I was avoiding you yesterday. Things are complicated right now. I know that you know everything about us- well, you don't any of the details- but, Bella, I couldn't see you because you were an outsider at the time. I'm sorry about not even calling or texting, but I literally wasn't able to under Sam's orders. So you can blame that on him.

"But about getting mad at Paul, I know that it isn't his fault that he imprinted on you; I guess you could call it fate. I'm still not happy about it because I wish it was me that would imprint on you." I am not surprised at this. I know that Jake and I's feelings for each other are different. To me, we are best friends, but to him we are so much more. "Bella, I'm still not completely over him- him of all people- imprinting on you. I don't know that I ever will be. I guess I would be if I ever did imprint, but don't count on it. It's supposed to be rare."

"Jake, don't think like that. It'll come. You'll meet her. Someday."

He grimaces. "Easier said than done. I actually have to see her in person first. One out of over 6 billion people in this world. I wish it was as easy as it was for Paul, Jared, Sam and Quil."

I don't ask, but I notice that he says that Quil has an imprint. I think about Claire, but then I decide that it isn't possible. I open my mouth to say something, but he stops me.

"Bella, please forgive me. I know I acted like an ass and I understand if you think that, but please forgive me. I swear that I'll try to accept this, but it's going to take some time."

"Of course I forgive you. I was never mad at you or anything. I just didn't understand why you didn't call or anything. It kind of clicked then when I saw Sam at your house. I didn't really understand why you got so mad at Paul, but now I do."

"So we're cool?"

"Yeah, we're cool."

"Any questions? I mean, I guess I will let Paul explain all of the other details about us and what we do, but anything else?"

I think for a second. I want Paul to answer everything, but there is one thing that keeps stabbing me, wanting to come out. "Paul said that there was a vampire in town, but he didn't get to say anything else."

"There is. Paul, Jared and Sam have been trying to get her since, well, since you were in the hospital last spring."

Are my suspicions correct? I hope not. "Does she happen to have red hair?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah, she does. What do you know about her?" he becomes serious all of a sudden.

"Her name is Victoria and her mate, James, is the reason that I was in the hospital last spring."

"What?"

"She and James met the Cullens and me in a field on the other side of town. James knew I was human and he went all the way to Phoenix to try to kill me for my blood. Edward's sister and brothers killed him. Edward said that Victoria would most likely come back for him."

"And they left you knowing this?" he is angry now.

"Yes." I whisper.

"Bella, they left you here knowing that she was on the loose to kill you, leaving you without protection."

"No they didn't," I stammer. "I mean, that's what you guys exist for, right? You guys are meant to kill vampires."

"Vampires are our worst enemy, Bella. We don't exactly ask each other to watch out for the people we hate most. They didn't tell us anything. I doubt they even knew that wolves are in the area, too. I'm going to go talk to Sam. He needs to know that you know who she is."

Jake starts for the back door. He runs into the woods behind the house and I catch a glimpse of him phase and hear the ripping of his clothes. I shout his name, but he is already gone.


	5. Chapter 5

I want to know what is going on. Jake needs to tell Sam that I know Victoria, but I don't see why. Why does it matter that I know who she is? Maybe it's just because I may know some information or something? I don't know. So I call Paul and tell him what I told Jake and that he ran off to tell Sam.

Just like Jake, Paul panicked. He says that he's coming to pick me up and asks me what my address is. I tell him and then we hang up. I go upstairs to quickly blow dry hair. Paul is on my front porch ringing the doorbell repeatedly 15 minutes later. He's totally serious and we don't make much conversation in the car. The air around us is tense.

We pull up to a house; I assume that it's Sam's and Emily's house. Paul helps me out of the truck and leads me into the house. We walk into the kitchen. Jake and Sam are there talking intensely at the table. Emily is pulling something out of the oven and normally I would gawk at the abnormally large muffins and think who could possibly eat a muffin that big, but now isn't the time.

Jake and Sam only take a glance at us before finishing their conversation. Sam says, "Jake told me everything, Bella."

"Why does it matter?" I ask not in a snotty way, but in a way that means I am simply curious because I am.

"Bella, if there is anything that you know about her, we need to know so that we can kill her."

"I don't really know anything about her. Not her history or anything like that. I just know that the Cullens killed her mate."

Jake, Sam and Paul all look at each other. Emily seems to be ignoring us and she sets the muffins in a bowl and puts it on the table. Then she walks into the next room. "Great. We have to kill her now if that's the problem. She isn't going to stop until they're dead. Does she even know that the other vampires are not here anymore?" Jake asks.

"I don't know. We don't really chat, you know. We don't communicate anymore. They kind of left because of me." A thought crosses my mind. "She's not looking for them." I say quietly. "She's looking for me. She wants me dead."

"Why would she be after you? You said that the leech's siblings killed her mate." Jake says.

"Because I'm the reason he's dead. Screw Alice, Jasper and Emmett. I am the reason he got killed in the first place."

They all look at each other and nod in agreement. "She needs to be killed either way." Paul says. It's the first time he's said anything since we got here.

"Agreed." The rest of us say, including me.

"But I don't want you guys to be killed in the process. Vampires are fast and strong. They could easily kill you." I say.

The guys laugh for a minute and I just stand there confused. Emily hears the comment and the laughter from the living room and makes a noise- a growl maybe- that gets them to stop immediately.

"Oh, Bella, you have a lot to learn about us." Jake puts an arm around my shoulder and I think that we are getting back to normal or as normal as things can get anyway. "We're faster, stronger, hotter both in temperature and looks," he adds that last one as an afterthought. "You have nothing to worry about. Leah alone could probably get her if she's in the right mood which is all the time." Paul continues laughing harder now but Sam looks a bit uncomfortable at the mention of Leah's name.

"Piss off," I hear. Leah walks into the house and takes a muffin from the table. "What's she doing here?" she nods her head in my direction.

"Bella knows who the leech is that keeps getting away." Jake says.

She doesn't say anything for a minute. Again, I'm not getting the impression that she and Seth share the same personality. "She went into the water again today. Seth almost had her. Idiot little brother." She mutters. "You know, we keep getting closer. I don't think it will be much longer before she's killed as long as she stays in the area and she doesn't travel very far out."

"This is true."

Paul and I leave a while later. There's no point in hanging around and Paul is on the next patrol shift with Jake and Quil. Paul drops me off at home and ensures me that I have nothing to worry about. He and the rest of the wolves will catch Victoria soon and then all will be safe. I hope that he's right.

I switch the laundry over and do other chores around the house so that I can try to keep my mind off of things. My mind is overloaded with information from the pass few days and I think I might just go insane one of these days.

Charlie comes home to dinner already on the table. He makes a funny face at the early dinner but I don't tell him the true explanation for it. Of course I won't tell him about all of the things I have learned this week and why I cooked an early dinner to keep my mind occupied. He also eyes the banana pudding that I set out. I don't usually make a dessert, but I know it's his favorite and I wanted to do something nice. That's what I tell him. He probably thinks I'm trying to suck up to him or something.

Keeping my mind busy for the rest of the night doesn't work out so well. When I get into bed, I realize that going to bed means that dreams could potentially come about. And knowing my luck it's most likely to happen.

Sure enough, there he was. A silver wolf is front and center along with Victoria. They are in the woods somewhere and Paul's wolf is trying to bite into Victoria to rip her apart, but she's too quick for him. It looks like she's going to run off into the woods, but she quickly turns around and bites Paul, infecting him with her venom and then she runs off, leaving Paul dead on the ground.

A small scream escapes me when I wake up; I have to keep telling me that things will be ok. "Nothing's going to happen. Paul and the rest of them will be ok. Jake said it himself and Paul said that she will be caught soon. I have nothing to worry about, silly conscious." I laugh for talking out loud to myself.

I look at the clock to see that it's just a few minutes pass six. I might as well get up. I have to work open to three today and then Paul and I are going out tonight. I know that we are going out to dinner, but I don't know where and if he has anything else planned.

After work I go home and get ready for tonight changing out of my work uniform and putting on nice jeans with a plain red top. The oven timer goes off so I take Charlie's dinner out and place it on the counter for when he gets home in a few minutes.

He sees what I am wearing and asks, "What are you dressed up for?"

I give him a look of confusion before I realize that I didn't tell him about my plans. "I must have forgotten to tell you that I'm going out tonight with a friend of Jake's."

"Who are you going out with?"

"His name is Paul."

Charlie only raises an eyebrow. "Bella, are you sure? After what Edward did and everything that you're ready for another relationship."

"I've already thought through this. Dad, I need to move on."

"And have you?"

"Yes. Dad, I won't let what happened with Edward happen again. I promise I won't go back to that zombie mode again. I swear it won't happen no matter what."

"Ok. Don't be out too late."

"Thanks, daddy." I give him a kiss on the cheek. I hear a honking outside. "Dinner's on the counter." I say as I walk out of the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Paul starts driving to Port Angeles, making me wonder where we are going. We pull into the parking lot of an expensive looking restaurant. I cringe on the inside a little thinking that we really don't need to be somewhere expensive. I would be happy eating somewhere else, but I don't say anything. Once Paul and I sit down the waiter comes over and introduces himself as Brad. Brad takes our drink orders then leaves to get them.

"So, Bella, I'm leaving the floor open. If there's any more questions that you have feel free to ask. I'll answer anything you want."

I have to think of how to phrase my question. There are too many people here to say exactly what I want to say. Finally I say, "How do you know about the Cullens?"

He pauses, seeming to think over how to phrase things. "We come from a very long line of our kind. Did Jake ever tell you about the treaty we have with them?"

"I don't know very much." I admit.

"Well, of course before this actually happened I thought it was just legend about what we are and what they are. I used to hear the stories all the time as a kid. As I got older I never believed them. But when it happened, I realized that the legends were true. Since I can hear Jake's thoughts, I knew that you were dating Edward and what he is."

"Wait, you can hear his thoughts? Can you hear mine?" I'm glad that nobody's paying attention to us because I would probably be put in a hospital for this.

Paul chuckles lightly. "No, I can't. Just we in the pack can hear each other. We can't hear anybody else's. It's how we communicate while in wolf form. So I know about Edward because I heard it in Jake's thoughts."

"Oh. Edward can hear thoughts, too. Everyone's thoughts except for mine. Do you think the Victoria thing will last long?"

"I don't think it will. I hope not. Too much stress and patrolling with her around." He pauses. "But let's not talk about that stuff anymore. What do you do besides work at MC Sports and hang out with a pack of wolves at bonfires?"

"I don't know, really. I don't get out much other than work and school, but I don't have school to occupy my time anymore."

"Do you have any college plans?"

"Not right now. I'm going to take the semester off and maybe start in the spring. I don't even know what I want to do. What do you do?"

"I graduated from high school two years ago but I haven't even really considered college that much. My dad owns a construction company back in La Push and I've been working there since I graduated."

"So you're a handy man."

He laughs slightly. "I don't think that I would consider myself a handy man necessarily. But I can fix things around the house and build a pretty decent deck."

"Well, that's ok. I'll make sure to call you next time something breaks in my house. Then what else do you do other than run around the woods as a wolf chasing vampires and doing construction?"

"Um," he becomes silent for a minute with a look of concentration on his face. "That is a very good question. I'm usually just hanging out with the others in my free time, but I don't have much of that."

"I guess both of us lead lives of hanging out with a pack of wolves and work."

"Yeah, I guess we do. So what does your mom do?"

There is another moment of silence and I wonder if he's heard me. I am about to ask again, but he says, "She died about ten years ago."

I let it sink in. "Oh, I'm so sorry." I feel guilty for asking now.

"Thanks." He says quietly. "She, uh, committed suicide when I was ten. Her and my dad got divorced when I was eight and she became an alcoholic for two years before my aunt found her in the living room with a bullet in her head."

I don't know what to say so I don't say anything. He seems to be thinking about something so I let him. "What about your parents? You live with your father?"

"Yeah. My parents divorced when I was little. My mom moved to Arizona and remarried a guy that plays in the minor leagues. She always stayed home with me when he traveled but I knew that she wanted to go with him. Plus I hadn't seen my dad in a while and I thought it'd be a good idea to move up here. I'm glad I did."

"I'm glad too. Any siblings?"

"Nope. You?"

"No."

The night continues with conversation so that we can know more about each other. We try to stay away from the vampires and werewolves as much as possible, but it doesn't always turn out that way. He asks about the scar that James left on my arm, so I have to go through that story. The look on his face is murderous and I have to remind him that James is dead and that Victoria is not the reason I have the scar, but that she is out there and she'll be dead soon thanks to him and the rest of the wolves. His face calms down a little bit then.

He also has a scar. It's just above his left eyebrow. He tells me the story about when he was in fourth grade and he was playing football with a few friends. One threw the ball and Paul went to catch it, but he wasn't paying attention and ran straight into the wooden deck, cutting himself right there. His story is so much better than mine only because it doesn't involve vampires and almost dying.

Paul and I leave the restaurant. He asks if there is anything that I want to do, but I come up blank. Anything as long as he's there is good for me. He takes me home, telling me that he has to go on patrol in a few hours. We say our goodbyes and both of say that we had a good time. I am looking forward to more dates with him. As much as I would like to, we don't kiss. Edward and I kissed on the first date and I feel that things went really fast with him. I don't want to rush things with Paul and I don't think that he does either. I am totally fine with that.

The next morning I wake up to a message from Paul. It says good morning and I am smiling as I text him back. Charlie left a note on the fridge saying that he was fishing with Harry and Billy and that he will be back around dinner time probably. Hm. A whole day to myself and nothing to do because I don't have to work. This is going to get old fast. All of the chores are done so that doesn't leave me anything to do. Finally, I just decide to have a day where absolutely nothing will be accomplished.

I do shower, though and change into shorts and a shirt. I throw my hair up in a ponytail and pop a movie into the DVD player. I press play and begin watching _Romeo and Juliet. _I only get about a half hour into it before I start thinking about Edward and how we were the forbidden love, coming from two different kinds. The humans and the vampires. How I wasn't supposed to even begin to guess what they are and how Charlie would've killed either of us if he found out. I hate myself for thinking about these things, so I stand up and take the movie out deciding that I am not interested anymore.

I scan the shelf for another movie to watch. I come across an old copy of _Beauty and the Beast. _I chuckle. Belle and I are so much alike. Our names are just coincidence, but we both love to read and we're in love with a beast. Whoa, Bella, getting ahead of yourself again. You don't love Paul. Not yet, at least. Give it a while and perhaps the feeling will arise. But I'll just wait until that happens.


	7. Chapter 7

**Paul POV**

I send Bella a text that says good morning before I leave for my patrol shift with Embry and Seth at 4:30 am. It's been far too long and I want this vampire dead. If I didn't want her dead bad enough before, now I really want her dead. She's after Bella and I know that she's not going to get anywhere near her if my life depends on it.

Last night's date with Bella went great. We talked and got to know a lot about each other. She told me about how she came to Forks, about how her step-dad plays minor league baseball, and how she used to take ballet classes when she was in elementary school. I told her about the scar I got from playing football and how I flooded the bathroom when I six because I forgot to stop the water in the bathtub. There was never that awkward moment between us that I usually experienced on a first date. That silence when you just didn't know what to say next.

Well, I guess there was one. When she asked about my mom, I became silent for a moment. I haven't thought about her in so long that I didn't know how to respond to Bella at first. I didn't really tell Bella the full story of the events leading up to her death because I didn't want to make her feel sorry for me. I hate when people feel sorry for something that isn't even their fault.

I continue to run the perimeter of La Push. Embry and Seth would mentally laugh or snicker at something I thought about or chime into my thoughts. "Your dad was so pissed when you told him you didn't have any college plans." Embry said.

"I know. I was lucky that he gave me a job with him." I said.

Another hour goes by and Quil and Jared come to relieve us. I run home to get a shower and figure out what I am doing for the rest of the day. Dad has been out of town for business so that leaves the house to myself, at least for a few hours. I see that I have a text from Bella telling me good morning and to be safe on patrol. I tell her that nothing happened today and that it was quite in La Push today.

Kim called me to ask if I could come fix a broken step in her's and Jared's house. I grab a few things and drive to their house a few miles away. I walk right in without knocking because I know that she is expecting me. She shows me which step needs to be fixed and it doesn't take long to do it. After I finish she offers me a sandwich and we sit at the table eating lunch and talking.

"So how did your date with Bella go?"

"Really well. I'm surprised she hasn't run out on me yet because of the whole wolf thing."

"Paul, she dated a vampire. I'm not surprised that she seems to be taking it so well. I know Emily didn't because of everything else that happened on top of that. And I still didn't believe Jared even after he showed me. Sometimes I still can't believe it's real."

"At least you already knew Jared. She just met me less than a week ago."

"True," she smiles. "Did you talk anything about the vampires?"

"Not much. Did Jared tell you that she knows the leech that's been around?"

"No," she sounds shocked. "He didn't mention that. How does she know her?"

"I guess she met her and her mate last spring. She said that her mate pretty much chased her to Phoenix just because he wanted her blood. He was killed and so she's back to kill Bella because of it."

"Oh my gosh. That's terrible. Paul, you have to promise Bella that vampire is going to be killed soon."

"I did. I promised her that it will be done soon and that we keep getting so close to her that it wouldn't be surprising if we get her in the next couple of days or weeks. Bella isn't even really concerned about her. She just doesn't want us to die or get hurt in the process."

"I don't blame her. I don't want anything to happen to you guys either. Neither does Emily. Paul, do you know how many nights we've stayed up talking to each other on the phone because we weren't able to sleep. Every time any of you go out there we dread hearing the signal that somebody's been hurt or worse. Yes, the vampire is a big concern, but your safety is our biggest concern."

"Kim, that's great and all but no one is going to be safe until the leech is dead and we're going to do everything that we can to make it so."

"Paul," she shakes her head. "Just remember that you, Jared and Sam have girls to come home to that understand what's going on. The three of us know what you guys are doing and what it means if something goes wrong. Then there's Claire. She's only two. If something happens, she isn't going to understand anything and she's just going to want to know where Quil is and why he won't come over to play or something. She's always going to live with something empty inside her and when she finds out about Quil, it's all going to backfire on her."

"Geez, Kim. You make it sound like we're going to die tomorrow."

"The arrogance and overconfidence isn't helping your case. It's going to bite you in the ass one day."

"It probably has already."

The front door opens and Jared walks in, kissing Kim on the cheek. "What are we talking about?" he asks. "Why are you even at my house?"

"He fixed the step that you broke this morning." Kim emphasizes on the word 'you'.

"I meant to ask how that happened." I say.

"He thought he could jump them from the top and landed on the last one and went through. Again, overconfidence bites you in the ass sometimes," she says directly to me.

I get up from the table to leave. I thank Kim again for lunch and get in my truck to go home. Dad is already home, which I wasn't expecting him to be until later tonight.

"Hey, dad." I say. He's sitting at the table, looking over some blue prints for a new house. "I thought you weren't going to be home until tonight."

"I switched flights with someone. I trust that nothing happened while I was gone. No parties or anything like that."

"No, of course not. I know, dad, your house, and your rules. I did meet someone though."

He peers up from the table and raises an eyebrow. "A girl?"

"Yes."

"I hope you're not planning on getting serious with her. We don't need to have another situation like Sam, Emily and Leah." Dad is in the know about the wolves.

"You don't have to worry about that. I imprinted on her."

"What's her name?"

"Bella Swan."

He doesn't say anything for a minute. Finally, "Paul, I don't know if I want you hanging around her. The council talks. I know that she was dating that Cullen leech."

"I know, too. She knows about us."

"When did this happen?"

"Monday. She showed up to Jake's unexpectedly."

"Well, then all I have to say is that you better watch out for her. Who knows, she could still have ties with the Cullens."

"I highly doubt that."

"That's fine, but remember what I said," he's saying as I go up to my room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Bella POV**

Paul and I have been dating for a month now. It's gone by fast. I've learned so much about him and the rest of the wolves in the past couple of weeks that Paul has told me that he's surprised I have not gone insane yet. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised, too. Not about the wolves alone, but the vampires too. So many things that one should know aren't real, and yet my life is a living fairytale.

When is it going to stop? The fairytale? This isn't _Shrek. _This is reality. I just want a normal life. I guess I can't complain, though. I did choose to stay with Edward even after he kept trying to convince me to run. And Paul said that he doesn't have to be my boyfriend, but I chose that route anyway. In most ways, Paul is more "normal" that Edward. A heartbeat for starters. Warm skin, though that's not really normal; he should be in a hospital for his temperature. He eats food and drinks things that aren't blood. He's capable of aging- as far as I know, at least. Hm. Something to ponder on. But, yes, in so many ways Paul is way more normal that Edward. And I like this 100 times better. Normalcy. The word hasn't been in my vocabulary for so long.

Paul called me this morning. They're thinking that it won't be much longer before Victoria is captured and killed, but they've been saying that for a month. I'm starting to question how long much longer is. A week? Month? Year? I hope not about the latter. I want it done now. Her dead. To see the purple cloud of smoke carried into the sky with her ashes. I even had a dream about it once. Along with the nightmares that Paul keeps reassuring me will go away as soon as she's gone.

But I don't want to worry about it this second. I'm at First Beach in La Push with the pack for the fourth of July. We're roasting hotdogs, making s'mores and Jared, Quil, Jake and Sam have a corn-hole game going. I don't think Jake is any madder about the imprint than he was when it happened, but I don't think he's accepted it yet either. Little Claire is running around, being chased by Seth and Embry, giggling her high-pitched laugh.

I see something blue in my face and take the Pepsi can from Paul. "Thanks." I say. He takes a seat next to me on the log in front of the fire.

"So when am I going to get to meet the Chief?" he asks all of a sudden.

"I invited him here, but he has to work late tonight. When do I get to meet your dad?"

"Soon enough. He's been really busy lately. Does your dad even know I exist?"

"He knows that you invited me to that first bonfire. And that I went out to dinner with you once. That's it though. That was a really random question, you know." I say.

"I know. Today I was thinking about something and thought about it." He shrugs.

More conversations come and go as the evening goes on. Jake and I only make a little small talk, but nothing more than that. I hope things won't be like this forever. He's going to have to deal with it eventually. Hopefully he imprints on someone and then he will know how Paul and I feel for each other, though it's only been a month.

Not long after it gets dark, people start to turn their chairs to face the other side of the beach to watch the fireworks. Paul is sitting behind me on the log and wraps his arms around me as we watch. Quil is sitting with Claire on his lap next to us. This seems odd to me. You would think she'd be sitting with Sam or Emily. She is their niece, after all. I just find it strange that she and Quil are so close. In the back of my mind an imprinting thought crosses. That thought goes away quickly because I think of how weird that would be. He's in high school and she's only a toddler. Yes, very weird. I should ask Paul about that.

The fireworks only last fifteen minutes, but the party continues long after. Claire's mom picks her up around ten to go home. Seth, Jake and Leah leavefor patrol.

"Hey, Sam." Jared calls from across the fire. He's looking up at the clear sky. "Do you have a flashlight at the house?"

"Yeah?" he questions. After a second, "Oh! Yeah, I'll go get it." He starts running for his house to go get this flashlight. I don't have the faintest idea why he's getting it, so I ask Paul.

"Why is he getting a flashlight?" I whisper into his ear.

"I think Jared wants to star tip."

"Star tip?" I have no idea what that is.

"You don't know what star tipping is?" I shake my head. He grins. "Jared, Bella doesn't know what star tipping is."

"Well, we'll just have to show her." He replies.

Sam comes back with the flashlight. Jared offers to go first and stands over and away from the fire. Kim takes the flashlight from Sam. Jared looks up and starts spinning while Kim stands next to him with the flashlight. Paul starts explaining. "Focus on a star and spin. The person with the flashlight will eventually yell stop and shine the light in your eyes. Then you have to fall and start running. Away from the fire, I would suggest."

"I don't think I need to have a reason to fall."

"I know you don't." he smiles.

Kim shines the light in Jared's eye and he falls before trying to run. The sight is pretty comical. Between being busy, caught off guard from the light and temporarily blind and then slipping on the sand a lot, it's a funny thing to watch.

Paul ushers me forward to go next. He takes the flashlight from Kim and I see him snicker at me. "Just focus on a star and spin."

I look up, finding a star and start spinning. It feels like I've been spinning for hours and I am starting to get dizzy. "Stop!" I hear and I am blinded by the flashlight. I fall and immediately try to get up to run, but it's useless because I fall before I can fully get on my feet. I hear the guys behind me, howling with laughter. I guess it is pretty funny on their side. On my side, though, I feel like a fool but I take it in good spirits. Besides, I thought Jared looked ridiculous, too.

It's nearing one-thirty when Paul says that I look tired. As much as I don't want to, I have to agree with him. He asks if I want to go home, and I nod my head while yawning. We tell everyone goodbye and walk hand-in-hand to his car. Paul had insisted that he drive, saying that he didn't trust my "old, ancient, good-for-nothing" truck. I had replied with something along the lines of, "Hey, I love that truck. Besides, you can blame Billy. He's the one that gave it to me." But I finally agreed to let him pick me up and take me home so that he would stop worrying.

"So, can I ask a question?"

"What, Bella?"

"I've noticed that Quil and Claire are really close. Are they related or something?"

"Can I answer that question without you freaking out?" I tell him yes. "Quil," he pauses. "Claire is his…imprint."

It takes me a second to let that register. I guess I had been right. "She's two. How is that possible?"

"There are a couple theories. One of them is that we imprint on the person that we're most likely to mate with to keep the gene going. Another is just that love doesn't have an age limit."

"Well, even if any of those theories were true, he's way older than her. He'll be in his thirties or forties before she's eighteen."

He cringes. "Their relationship isn't like ours. He doesn't feel love for her. It's strictly a brotherly relationship, at least for now that's how it is. Actually, there's something else that I haven't told you yet."

"What?"

"I'm not, I mean we're not-as in none of the pack- aging right now."

"Hu?" Did I hear him right?

"When you're a werewolf, you don't age. Right before the first transformation, we all went through a big growth spurt. Then after the transformation, we stopped aging since our bodies are going through so many drastic changes. We also figured out that Leah won't be able to have kids, at least not while she's phasing."

"So you're never going to age?" I ask in disbelief. Does everyone get to stay frozen at their age except for me?

"No, that's not true. Right now, we aren't aging. Not while we still phase. When we decide to stop phasing, we'll start to age again. It's just a matter of time before we decide to and we have enough will and patience to stop. I'm sure it's not easy to stop."

"That's ridiculous." I say. "Am I the only one in this whole mythical creature mess that still has to age?"

"Bella, calm down. It's not for forever like the vampires. I can still age, that just means that I would have to stop phasing. But right now that isn't going to be possible with Victoria running around. I promise, though, that I will stop someday."


	9. Chapter 9

Despite how tired I was feeling when we left La Push, I find it difficult to sleep. I learned a few new things tonight. Quil _had _imprinted on Claire. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. I know Paul said that Quil holds no romantic feelings towards her right now and he'll wait for her to age, but it still seems really weird to me. I mean, she's two! And he's seventeen!

And leading onto the next conversation Paul and I had was the fact that they aren't aging. Is there no justice in this world? Why can't I stay eighteen? Edward gets to stay seventeen forever and Paul doesn't anticipate himself to stop phasing so that he can age. This is ridiculous! I mean, I guess that it's good news for Quil because then he can be with Claire in a few years, but what about the rest of them? What do they have to look forward to so bad that they need to stop aging? I don't see anything. Again with the normalcy that I am slowly seeing slip out of my life again. Or maybe my life was never normal to begin with. I am really starting to consider this.

Apparently I fell asleep at some point in the night. The clock says ten when I wake up. I get out of bed to shower and get a few things done before going to work at two. MC Sports is really busy today. People are coming in to pick up sports gear for school and other things that they need. Thankfully I am working with Alyssa, Chayce, and Reed. They're the ones to go to when you have a question about what you need for a specific sport or whatever. I am not the one to go to for that stuff, so I just do the register and put things where they need to go. Questions about shoes and clothes and the best product for whatever, though, goes to them usually.

One of the boys or Leah comes into the store sometimes to buy shorts after they've shredded them from phasing. I usually take this as a sign. Either they got really pissed off at something or they had to react quickly and didn't have enough time to tie the shorts around their ankle. Jared comes in today. He slams the seven pairs on the counter in front of me.

"Bad day?" I ask.

"Damn leech. She got away _again."_

"Did you guys get any closer?"

"Leah almost had her. Leah had her jacket in her mouth before she dove again."

"Well, you're getting closer. That's always good."

"I guess. Sam wants to start putting more people on shifts to patrol the waters more."

"The more of you out there the faster she'll be caught, you know."

"I know."

"You know, most of the others only get one or two pairs at a time," I reference to the shorts.

"Kim's pissed because I just shredded my last pair and she told me to buy at least five pairs, so I got seven."

"You know, you can just ask me to buy you some shorts instead of coming in all the time. I do it for Paul all the time."

"Nah, I don't want to make you do it. I had to come into town today anyway. Bye."

"Good luck," I say.

"Thanks," he walks out of the store.

On my break I ask Paul about what happened today. He wasn't on that shift, but he was still able to tell me. Leah was so close to getting her and then she went into the water again. All they have now is the jacket that was left behind in Leah's mouth. They're all pretty mad about it. They keep getting so close and she just slips through the cracks.

Alyssa and I let the guys go and we finish closing. After making sure that everything is ready we walk out to our cars. We're parked right next to each other so we walk together. Alyssa says, "So that guy you were talking to earlier- the tall one with the dark hair- is that Paul?"

"No, that's Jared. He's a friend of Paul, though."

"Oh. You just described Paul as tall with dark hair and skin so I assumed."

"Paul is from La Push. Most of the boys there are tall with dark hair and skin."

"True. I'll see you later."

We get in our cars and drive home. I shower quickly and get ready for bed before calling Paul. "Hey, Bella."

"Still mad about earlier?" I ask.

He sighs. "Yes. We all are. Leah especially. She was so close to getting her and she went into the water. All we have is the jacket."

"Why don't you guys go into the water?"

"We've tried that once or twice. We don't do well in the water at all."

"Oh," is all I can say.

"Bella, this will all be over soon. I swear. If it's the last thing I do."

"Don't talk like that."

"What?"

"Don't make it sound like something could happen in the process."

"Bella, nothing is going to happen."

"Paul, I'm not stupid. Something could happen and you know that it's possible. Please, just promise me that you'll always be careful. You and the rest of them. And not to do anything stupid."

"I promise. We'll all be careful. We always are. Sam is trying to figure out a new patrol schedule. More of us by the water to get her."

"That's what Jared said. I saw him at work today."

"I know. Do you have to work tomorrow?" I hear him yawn.

"Ten to four. Are you working?"

"From eight to four. Do you want to do something after?" He yawns again.

"Sure. Do you still want to see that one movie?"

"Actually, I had something else in mind."

"Really? Like what?"

"You'll see." I hear him laugh a little. "Be at my house at 6."

"Ok. I will. Bye." I hang up.


	10. Chapter 10

The day seems to just drag on today. I swear this is the slowest day ever. I look at the clock and see that I still have two more hours to work. Fantastic. I continue doing inventory for the last of my two hours. When the clock strikes four, I clock out and rush out the door.

Charlie is still working when I get home. I pull into the driveway and wave to the neighbor boys as I get the mail. Junk. Junk. Bill. People trying to get me to attend their college. Nothing out of the ordinary. I put the mail on the kitchen table and grab a glass of water to take with me upstairs. I change out of my work clothes and put on some khaki shorts and a plain red top. I don't know what Paul has planned for tonight, so I want to look nice just in case.

Charlie comes home not long before I leave. He asks where I am going. "I'm going out with Paul." I say.

"Ok. Have fun and be safe."

I leave a little early because, first, I need to get gas. Also, I've only been to Paul's house once, and not even in the house, I just waited in the car while he got something. So I want to make sure that I leave early enough to get lost if I do. Finding his house is easier than I thought, so I am a few minutes early.

I go up to the door and ring the bell. Paul answers the door a moment later dressed really nicely. A bright smile is on his face. I return the smile. "Hi," he says. "Come in." He steps aside so that I can walk in. I take the room in. I'm standing in a hallway, a set of French doors on the left to an office. Straight back seems to the the living room and kitchen. The lightly colored walls and crown molding look really nice in the house. A few pictures of Paul and some others decorate the walls, but the one I notice first is of a small child and two parents. Paul can't be more than seven or eight in the picture.

"You have a really nice home." I say.

"Thanks. My dad built it."

"Wow."

"C'mon." He takes my hand. "I'll show you around."

He shows me the office first, since we're right next to it. Then he takes me to the living room and kitchen. He shows me the upstairs, too, not opening the door to his father's room and only briefly showing me the rest of it because there isn't much there. Just the bedrooms and a bathroom.

"So, do you have something in mind for tonight?" I ask as we go back downstairs.

"Yeah. Outside."

Paul leads me out the back door in the kitchen. The deck is small with a small table and chairs, but he doesn't stop there. Instead, I follow him down the stairs to where a blue blanket lays in the grass. There's also a large red bag sitting on top of the blanket.

"Paul, what is this?"

"Well, I figured since we have such nice weather and all, why not have a little picnic."

He leads me over to the blanket and we both sit on top of it. He starts to pull plates and plastic silverware out of the bag and places them in front of us. "I hope you like ham." he says and gives me a sub. "We also have potato salad and some fruit and some veggies." he pulls everything out of the bag and puts it on the blanket. He also pulls two cups from the bag and a pitcher of lemonade from behind it. "And dessert is in the fridge."

"Wow, Paul, you went all out."

He smiles. "I try."

Paul and I fill our plates up with food and begin to eat. "This is really good potato salad. Did you make it?"

"Uh, no. Emily helped. She made that and helped with dessert. But I made the subs. I'm not much of a cook." he admits.

"Well, you may not be much of a cook, but the subs are good, too."

"Good. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

I nod. "So has Sam figured out a new schedule yet?"

"Yeah. He's putting the ones who don't work on the schedule longer so that more of us will be on at a time. I'm on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday from four to nine in the morning with Leah. Nobody likes the new schedule, but it's better for everyone that we be out there more. He also has me patrolling the coast since I'm one of the older ones."

"Won't you be tired? Going from four to nine and then having to work."

"I'll only patrol on the days that I don't have to work. Even then it would still be worth it in the end. We have to do whatever it takes to make you and everyone else safe again."

"It's not my safety that I am concerned about."

"I know. But I am. Bella, again, we're going to be ok. Stronger. Faster. And since we can talk without her listening, we can catch her off guard. Bella, please, trust us. We won't let anything happen to us. I swear it."

I don't say anything for a minute. "Fine. I guess I should stop worrying and start having some more faith in you guys."

"Thank you."

"So, I was thinking that you need to meet Charlie."

"You need to meet my dad, too."

"I know. You said that your dad has been so busy, though."

"He has, but trust me when I say that he always makes time for other things. He can't work 24/7."

"So when is a good day?"

"Are you good for lunch on Sunday?"

"That sounds great. But are you going to be up to that since you patrol that morning?"

"I'll be fine. What about your dad?"

"I'll see if I can set something up."

There's a moment of silence. "Are you ready for dessert?" he asks.

"Yeah."

Paul gets up from the blanket and walks to the house and into the kitchen. He comes out a minute later, carrying two small plates and forks. He hands one to me. "Emily's strawberry cheesecake. It's almost as good as her muffins."

"This looks great."

"Like I said. It's _almost _as good as the muffins."

I take a bite and it really is great. Especially for the summer, I think I have just found my new favorite dessert. Paul and I eat our dessert in silence. There is no need for conversation all the time and I like that about us. We're comfortable in just being with each other. There's no need to keep each other occupied with conversation.

He sets his plate down right before I do and we look at each other for just a second. Paul starts to lean his head in closer to me and I start to do the same. Our lips connect. His lips are warm, just like the rest of his body, and they heat mine as they move together. It's brief, but it feels so right to be kissing Paul. So different from when I would kiss Edward with his stone cold and hard lips. Paul's are soft, warm and everything that they should be.

We part. Both of us have smiles on our faces and now I know that Paul is the one that I should've been with from the beginning. Nothing about my past seems right anymore, now that I am with Paul.


	11. Chapter 11

Paul and I steal a few more kisses in between conversations. As much as I would love to continue kissing his warm lips, I know that he has to get up early for work in the morning and I leave. But not after kissing him just one more time.

I'm not too far down the road before I notice how quiet it is. I've never really noticed it before until now. I turn the radio on and I try to think of how long it has been since I have had it on. Too long, I think. Like, since Edward, too long. Wow. Has it really been that long since this radio has been on? I flip through the stations, not finding anything that I recognize except a couple of songs that I listened to in Paul's car. I am really out of the loop when it comes to music.

The house is still lit when I pull up. Charlie is on the couch watching a baseball game. He asks how my night was and I tell him that it was great. He turns back to the game, but I sit down next to him. He looks at me, as if he thinks that I want to watch the game with him, but then he must think better of it. "Bella, is there something you need?"

"Is there a day not on Sunday that you're free?"

"Monday after work. Why?"

"Paul wants to meet you."

He considers this for a second. "Have you met his parents?"

"No. We're going to go out to lunch with his dad on Sunday."

"His mom?"

"She died when he was a kid."

"Oh. Yeah, I can do Monday. Give me a time and a place if that's what you want."

I go up to my room. I text Paul, asking if Monday night is good and he says that it's fine. I tell him to be at my house around six. Paul tells me that he'll pick me up at eleven on Sunday. I hope that things go well in both cases. With Charlie being a cop, he knows how to really look at a person. That can be good in some cases, but usually it's annoying. When he first met Edward it wasn't so bad since the Cullens kept to themselves for the most part and because he knew that Carlisle and Esme raised them well. But when a girl from a few doors down and her mother came over, asking if we wanted to buy something for the school, he looked the mother up and down in a suspicious way. When I asked him about it, he said that her older son was one that is constantly in trouble either with him or another officer.

I don't know how it's going to go with Paul's dad. Hopefully I don't give him the wrong impression of me. I wonder how much he already knows. Most likely my name. Probably that I'm from Forks if Paul told him that I'm not from La Push. I wonder if he knows about the vampires. I wonder if he knows about Paul. Paul had told me that Embry's mom doesn't know about the wolves or anything supernatural for that matter. I guess I will find out in two days.

Going to bed, I remember the day. It dragged on during work, then it seemed to have sped up after I got off. Time flew once I got to Paul's house. What he did was amazing. What girl wouldn't want her boyfriend to set up a blanket and some food for a little picnic in the backyard? Even if he didn't actually make the food by himself and got help, I still thinks that it's pretty great that he came up with the idea. It was pretty cute.

Tonight I have come to the realization that what Paul and I have is right. What Edward and I had was not love. It was more of an infatuation. I fell so quickly with him that I didn't get a chance to see what was going on. So quickly that I wasn't aware of the dangers of being with him, or even around the rest of the family. Yes, there are dangers being around Paul and the rest of the wolves since they can't fully control themselves. But what is the likelihood of them phasing too close, verses me falling and cutting my knee, causing me to bleed. I think I know which is more likely to happen. And I was too stupidly in love with Edward to realize that it was not love. I was also stupidly in love to think that it was...romantic that he would watch me sleep. Now, I realize, I can sleep freely, without worrying about what I might say in my sleep. Nor do I have a vampire in my room watching me in my unconsciousness. The more I think about it, the creepier it sounds.

Paul is soft and warm. Everything that a normal person should be. Not cold and hard. While I agree that normal people don't burst out into a giant furry dog, Paul is every bit human that Edward isn't. Warm, heart beat, eats and drinks like a normal person and doesn't make snide facial expressions and comments about the food I eat. Paul has to breathe to stay alive, and Edward only breathes out of habit. Paul can get hurt, and although he heals quicker than most, it's still more human than anything that Edward can do.

Paul makes me feel good. Special. Free. Not stupid, fragile and unable to make my own decisions. Paul makes me feel everything that I didn't or couldn't feel when I was with Edward. Paul doesn't make me feel degraded. He doesn't try to push me away. I used to think that Edward telling me that I shouldn't be with him was just him trying to get me to see the real Edward and he was trying to protect me. Now I think that he was just trying to get me to leave because he thought I was an obligation that he didn't want anymore. Well, he's gotten his wish because if he does come back I'm not going back to him.

One other thing that I realize is how confusing he could be. One minute he's saying that I shouldn't be with him and the next he's telling me that he will soon follow after my death. So, do you want to be with me or not? I would ask myself. I get being sad after someone's death for a little while, but is it really worth killing yourself for it? Yes, I was sad after he left, but I never thought about that! I have other things to live for. Obviously Edward needs to find something to live for. I'm not going to waste my time living only because of someone else.


	12. Chapter 12

I have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off, which is nice because I've had to work everyday this week. I'm looking forward to a few days off. Saturday is spent doing chores while Charlie is fishing with Billy Black and Harry Clearwater. Dusting, laundry. How many clothes can two people go through in just a week? I eat a turkey sandwich and some chips for lunch. Very boring day. Nothing exciting ever happens in Forks to occupy my time.

Sunday morning I shower and make sure I look nice enough to meet Paul's dad. Not too much, not too little. Don't want to over do it or not be nice enough. I wait patiently, but anxiously in the living room for Paul to pull into the driveway. He's punctual, always getting places on time and I like that. I hate being late to places.

I slide in the truck with difficulty although I'm starting to figure out how to get in and out of his car. Every time I do, Paul has to laugh at me and my inability to get in easily. He kisses me when I get in and says, "Maybe you should grow a few inches."

"Maybe you should get a shorter car." I say back.

"Nah, I like this truck." Paul starts driving towards a little coffee shop in Forks where we're meeting his dad. "I do have to warn you about something, Bella. Dad knows about the wolves and vampires. He also knows that you dated Cullen. Don't get mad at me. When he asked what your name is I told him and he already knew that you dated him. I don't think he will, but if he looks like he doesn't like you, don't take it personally. He's just trying to figure you out."

"Ok." I say. How many people know about my dating Edward? Especially in La Push? "I'll try not to be offended or anything."

The car ride is short and soon Paul is helping me out of the truck. He holds the door open to the Pelican House as we walk in. His dad isn't here yet so we just find a table and wait. His dad gets there about five minutes after us. "There he is." Paul says.

Both of us stand up form the table as he walks up to us. "Hello. Nick Lahote." he extends his hand out to greet me.

"Bella Swan." I take his hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, Mr. Lahote."

"Please. Call me Nick. It's good to meet you, too, Bella. Paul never stops talking about you." he takes a glance to my left where Paul is standing.

"Yeah, dad, thanks." he says, seeming a little embarrassed. "Well, I will let you two get to know each other while I go order our food."

Nick and I sit across from each other while Paul walks up to the counter to order. Nick is a tall man, probably 6'2'' with dark skin, typical of those in La Push. His jet black hair is cut short, much like Paul's. Overall, he looks much like Paul, but with some subtle differences that Paul must have gotten from his mother.

Nick looks at me for a minute without saying anything. I guess he's trying to figure me out like Paul said. "So, Bella. You're dating Paul. I hope that he's treating you right."

"Yes, he is."

"Well, that's good. I don't expect anything less of him. He says that you're taking the werewolf thing well."

"Yeah, I am. I guess I should be used to the whole world of mythical creatures by now."

"Yes, you should. Bella, I'm sure that you don't, but I just want to be sure. Do you still have any ties with the Cullens?"

I think this is the kind of thing that Paul was talking about earlier. "No. I don't have any ties with them since they left. Period. And in the past few weeks that Paul and I have been together, I've realized that I don't want to have any form of communication or anything with them. It was all an infatuation with them and I was more entranced by their beauty and hypnotized with the mind tricks than anything."

"That's good. We don't need anymore vampire drama around here."

Paul comes back to the table with our food and sits down next to me. The three of us take our food off of the tray and slowly begin to eat. "You have a really nice house, Nick." I say after a moment.

"Thank you, Bella. I built it when Paul was around nine, I think." he replies. "Do you work anywhere?"

"MC Sports."

"A favorite store of ours in La Push. Leah and the boys are there all the time."

"I see them a lot. Always coming in for shorts and shoes and everything else."

"I wouldn't be surprised. With all of the things going on they're always having to be alert and not take any chances. No time to get out of the shorts all the time and they just get shredded to pieces. Billy told Jake that he's got to start buying his own clothes if he keeps shredding them."

"Well, now they all know to ask me what my schedule is so that they can get a discount when they come in."

"That is always nice. You've graduated, correct?"

"Yes, this year."

"Do you have any college aspirations?"

"Not right now exactly. I think I'm going to take a year off."

"Do you know what you want to do?"

"Journalism perhaps. Maybe English. I've also thought about psychology."

"Well I don't know about English and journalism, but I do know that psychology is a very good field to go into."

"I've been told. We'll just have to see how things go."

"I wish nothing but the best." he says with a bright smile.

"Thank you."

"Paul, you haven't said much." Nick looks to Paul who looks up from his plate.

"You two have been carrying the conversation the entire time. I didn't want to interrupt."

"Hey, you're a part of the conversation too. Have you gotten any closer to fixing the problem?"

"No. Sam put us on a new patrol schedule, but it hasn't done anything yet. We haven't really seen her for a while. Actually, we haven't seen her since Leah got her jacket. And that was like a week ago. She's usually around at least two or three times a week."

"Now listen. I'm sure you get this enough from Bella already, but you guys better take care of yourselves out there. We don't need to lose anyone because of this. Yes, do what you need to do, but you better damn well make sure that all eight of you come back. Especially you, Sam, Jared and Quil. The four of you have girls to come back to."

"I know. I get that from Bella all the time. And Kim already gave me the imprints to come home to speech."

"It's good that she's paying attention to everything and lecturing you guys on the things going on. We all know that Emily won't."

"That's because Emily doesn't want to think about it much less talk about it. And Emily isn't one for reprimanding us. She's more of the emotional support. Kim is the one to tell us how it is and she isn't going to be lighthearted about it either."

"I've always liked that about her."

"Only because you're the same way." Paul accuses.

"Being blunt never hurt anyone." Nick looks at his watch and says that he has to get back to work. Paul and I also decide to leave. The three of us stand and Nick and I shake hands again. "Bella, you're a very pleasant girl to be around. Don't be shy to come around the house."

"I'm sure I'll be over a lot."

"Ok. Then I will see you later."

Nick gets into his car and drives off back to work. Paul and I walk around the corner to Paul's truck. He starts the engine and drives off. "Is there anything that you wanted to do while we're out?" he asks.

"I don't think so. Unless there's something you want to do."

"No, not really. So do you like him? I hope he wasn't too forward with anything that he may have said or asked."

"No, he's nice. He asked if I still have anything to do with the Cullens but that's it. Nothing too forward."

"Good." Paul pulls into the driveway of my house. "So I'll be here around six tomorrow."

"Yeah. Is that still a good time?"

"It's good." Both of us lean in for a kiss that lingers for a little bit. When we pull back, Paul says, "I love you."

I smile. "I love you, too."


	13. Chapter 13

Paul drives away heading back towards La Push. I walk into the house and see Charlie eating a sandwich at the kitchen table. He asks about how lunch went with Nick and Paul and I tell him that Nick is really nice. I tell him that Nick has done very well at raising Paul on his own. I can now tell where Paul learned his manners and charm from. He also expects his son to treat women right. Charlie is happy about that.

I remind him about tomorrow and I think I hear a grumble. I hope tomorrow goes well, then. It should. Everything went fine when he met Edward. Of course, that was only for a few minutes and I think Charlie was too busy laughing at the fact that I was going to be "playing baseball." Now he's going to have to sit down with Paul for a meal and actually have to talk to him. I wonder how many embarrassing stories he has planned to tell Paul already.

Charlie mentions that we're out of milk and a few other things so I make a quick list and decide to go shopping now rather than tomorrow. It takes me longer than I thought it would, but I get everything that I'll need to make dinner for tomorrow and food for the rest of the week since I'm here. Charlie helps me put things away when I get home, then he goes back to watching the Mariners game.

I put the chicken in a container with the marinade and put it in the fridge for tomorrow. I go upstairs to my room. I pick up the book I started reading last week and finish the last couple of chapters. I'll have to go to the library soon to find another book to read. Actually, maybe I'll ready _Anne of Green Gables_ again. It's been so long since I've read it.

I don't realize how late it is until Charlie calls me down for dinner. He ordered pizza from down the road and I apologize for not realizing the time. "Bella, you can take a break every once in a while. Besides, I'm going to have to learn sooner or later how to fend for myself. You're probably not going to be here much longer."

That got me thinking about the future. How much longer does Charlie plan on me being in this house? I don't know what I'm going to do with my life yet. I'm not even sure with what I want to do as a career. I did have my entire life planned out at one point. Become a vampire and live the rest of eternity with Edward. Yeah, look at how well that turned out. Now I'm not certain. Be with Paul for the rest of my life. I'm not really planning on anything else. Kids? Perhaps. We haven't gotten that serious to discuss that yet. I'm not even sure if I want kids myself.

I don't even know if I want to get married. Yes, be committed to the same person for the rest of your life, but do I really need a piece of paper to show it? Isn't being together forever enough? I'm not saying that I wouldn't get married, I just don't see the big deal in it.

I go to bed early with my mind swarmed of thoughts about the future. Really the only things about the future that I care about are tomorrow going well and Paul and the rest of the wolves killing Victoria without killing themselves in the process. Is that too much to ask?

It's a dreamless night and I'm thankful for that. I can wake up with a clear head. It's raining outside when I wake up so I know that I'm going to be stuck inside all day. I'm up kind of early and I don't know what to do with myself. There aren't any chores that need to be done. I already went to the store and I won't start dinner until later. I eat a bowl cereal while watching the news because nothing else is on at seven on a Monday morning. Charlie leaves around 7:30 and even he wonders why I'm up so early.

I wash the bowl and spoon that I was using before getting a shower. I wrap my body and hair in a towel and walk into my room. I stare at the closet for a few minutes and finally decide on a a pair of skinny jeans and a long sleeve brown top since it's kind of cold out. I don't bother to dry my hair and let it just dry on its own.

I check my email before going downstairs, but there isn't anything new so I close out of it quickly. I watch a random game show on TV for a little bit. It keeps my mind distracted for a while, but a commercial comes on, talking about a new vampire movie coming out. I have to laugh, first, at Hollywood's portrayal of vampires and how inaccurate it is. Then I have to turn the channel when I see that one of the vampires has red hair. It's not Victoria, but it's close enough.

Charlie comes home while I'm making dinner. I have the chicken in the oven with the potatoes cooking on the stove. It's Charlie's favorite meal, so I thought I'd make it to make him happy for when Paul gets here.

The doorbell rings as I'm pulling the chicken out and turning the stove off. "I got it." I say to Charlie, who didn't even flinch when the doorbell rang. I open the door and see Paul, hair dripping wet from the rain. I'm pretty sure that it's raining harder now than it was this morning. "Hey. Come in."

"Hi," he says and steps in. He kisses me and then shakes his head a little.

"Ok, dog. Pun intended." I say.

"Yeah. You love me anyway."

I hear footsteps come from behind me and see Paul straighten up a little bit. "Charlie Swan." he extends his hand out.

"Hello, sir. Paul Lahote." he takes Charlie's hand and gives it a firm shake.

Charlie seems to be eying him up and down, which I'm not surprised about. No one says anything for a while and then it just becomes really awkward. I can tell that Paul feels awkward too. Great. We haven't even gotten out of the doorway and it's already like this. I can't wait to see what the rest of the night is going to look like.

"So, um, are you guys hungry?" I say to get rid of the tension.

"Yeah." They both say and I lead them to the kitchen.

I set dinner on the table and get drinks out for the three of us. Paul and Charlie each sit on an end of the table with me in the middle. Charlie digs in first so Paul and I take that as our cue to start, too. Surprisingly Charlie starts the conversation. "So, Paul, do you have a job?" Oh my gosh. Does this really have to be the first question out of his mouth?

"I work for the construction company that my dad owns."

"Are you college educated?" Dear Lord, why?

"No. I haven't really thought about college to be honest. I'm lucky that my dad gave me a job after I graduated."

"Well I appreciate the honesty. How old are you?"

"Twenty. I'll be twenty-one in October."

"I'm going to get straight to the point." Charlie suddenly says. Here we go. "I don't know if you're aware of what she's been through." he points to me.

"I know about what happened with Edward." Paul tells him.

"Good. I don't care about what goes on between you two, but if you hurt her like he did, you will be castrated."

I start to choke on my water a little. Paul's eyes go wide. I wasn't expecting Charlie to go that far. "Sir, I can promise you that I'm not going to hurt her like he did. I can promise that with my life."

Charlie sits there for a minute as I try to recover from his comment. "Good. I'm going to hold you accountable to that. Just remember what I said."

"No problem, sir."

"Charlie."

"Right. Charlie. Got it."

The room becomes silent again. I hope that 's the end of the awkward part for tonight. Charlie's eyes scan between Paul and I. "Do you have any siblings?"

"No, it's just me." he looks down at his plate.

"Bella told me that your father did a very well job at raising you by himself." Finally, something good.

"Thanks." Paul smiles down at me. "I will tell him you said that."

Everyone finishes not long later. Paul says that he'll help with the dishes despite my protest. Charlie goes into the living and watches ESPN for a good ten minutes before he falls asleep on the couch. Paul and I only make some small talk until we hear Charlie's snoring from the other room.

"So did I pass?" he asks.

"I think so. As long as you don't do anything stupid. I wasn't expecting him to go that far with the castrating comment."

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that exactly, but maybe something like it."

"Did you have a good patrol this morning?" I say after a minute.

"None of us are going to have a good patrol until she's dead."

"True. Anything today?"

"No. We think that she might be trying to figure out a new tactic or something. I don't know, I just want this over with."

"I know how you feel." I hand him the last dish to dry and he places it in the drawer when he's done.

"I should probably get going. I have to work tomorrow." he says, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"What time do you leave?"

"I have to get up at 5:30 and leave at 6:30."

"Oh. Why so early?"

"Bella, it's construction, not an office job. We have a deadline that we have to meet, so we have to start early and work late sometimes. Plus with this rain going on, it might delay us."

I walk Paul to the door. We kiss, say I love you and say goodbye before he heads back home. I wake Charlie up and tell him to go up to bed. I lock the door, shut the lights off downstairs and head up to get ready for bed.


	14. Chapter 14

One month. One whole freaking month has gone by and everything is still the same. I'm still working at MC Sports. Paul still has his same work and patrol schedule. Victoria is still out there. It's the middle of August. Paul and I have been dating for two and a half months, and they've been trying to kill Victoria even longer than that. Paul's frustrated. I'm frustrated. We all are and it's not going to stop until she's dead. Paul expressed this to Nick and I a few nights ago.

"Not a trace. Not one single freaking trace of her since Leah got the jacket. We've gone all the way into northern Canada and mid-Oregon and we still can't find her. I'm pretty sure that we scared her off or something because she hasn't made an appearance in how long? Like over a month I think. We don't want to scare her away, we want to kill her. This is ridiculous. She should be dead by now!" he ranted.

"Have you guys gone east? Maybe she went into Montana or something." I said.

"We've been there too! We can't find her. We can't find a scent or anything."

"What if she's got someone working with her?" Nick suggests.

"Doubtful. We would've picked up on the scent of that leech, too."

"It doesn't have to be a vampire, necessarily. Humans are very easily persuaded by vampires. I'm sure that it wouldn't be very hard for her to find someone, a guy especially, that she could somehow manipulate and have that person watching you guys."

"True, but what are the odds of that?"

"She isn't stupid, Paul." I said.

"Sometimes stupidity pays off."

"Ok, well let's say she does have someone watching for her. That person is probably telling her that you guys are ready for her and patrolling."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Well, if she's being told that you guys are patrolling for her, then she's not going to want to come. Leah was so close that she got the jacket off. Victoria's probably scared now and doesn't want to be around when you're ready to get her at any given moment. So she has someone reporting to her, telling her not to come in because you're always patrolling. So maybe if you guys stop patrolling for a while, whoever could be working with her will tell her that you aren't looking anymore, then she'll come in and you'll be ready because you can phase on the spot."

Paul and Nick considered this for a minute. Paul looked over at Nick, who shrugged and said, "It might work."

"It might, but good luck trying to convince Sam of that." Paul said.

And now, here I am with Paul, trying to convince Sam that it might work. Sam doesn't think it will. He does to a point in that it might get her back here if she isn't being hunted. But he isn't concerned about that. He's more concerned about the fact that no one will be out patrolling. How will anyone know if something happens? It's a good point, but it's his job to work something out.

"It's not worth putting people in more danger by not being on patrol. If no one is patrolling then that gives a greater chance that something could happen. I'll do a new schedule. We can cover more land, going all across North and South America if we have to to get her." Sam argues.

"Sam, you're going to burn us all out if you do that. We're all burnt out already with this schedule. And some of us have other work schedules to attend to. Plus, is she's going to attack in La Push, it'll probably be on the beach just judging by where she usually is and because Bella's there so often. Also, she probably doesn't know what we look like in human form. So say Bella and I are at the beach and she decides to attack, I'll have the advantage in that she won't know that I'm a wolf. Then I can signal the rest of you and you can come down to help. It really isn't that hard if you think about it for a little bit." Paul has thought long and hard about this and I'm proud of him for it.

"Ok, that would work, I will admit. But what if she tries to attack at Bella's house?"

"I was getting to that. I think that at least one person should be on patrol at her house, but that's it."

"Bella, what do you think?" Sam turns to me.

"I'm the one who thought of it." I say.

Sam seems to be considering it. I don't know if that means that he'll agree, but at least he's thinking about it. That's one step closer to getting a solution. "Two months. I'll give it to the middle of October to work. If not then we go back to patrols." he says. "Go tell those on patrol that they're off and tell them that there's a pack meeting immediately, Paul. I'll get the others."

Paul goes outside in the woods to strip and phase. Emily and Sam both grab their phones to call the others that aren't on patrol to come in. Paul comes back in a few minutes later, fully clothed with Jake and Jared. "What's up with the pack meeting?" Jake asks.

"New plan," is all that Sam says. The rest of the pack shows up not too long after Jake and Jared do. We all gather in Sam's and Emily's small living room. Actually the room is a decent size, but when you put ten werewolves, Emily, Kim and myself in there, it can get kind of crowded. "Bella and Paul think that we need to try something different." Sam starts. "No more patrolling."

"What?" Leah says.

"What do you mean no more patrols?" Jared asks.

"How are we going to get her?" Jake goes, along with everyone else, including Kim, who keep asking how this is going to work.

"If everyone would shut up then I could explain!" Sam yells and the room goes silent. "Now, if I could have everyone's attention please. There are no confirmed sources, but after a lot of thinking, Bella and Paul and Nick have come up with a theory. Victoria might be working with someone. Not a vampire because we would've caught up to that already, but a human. She could be working with the human."

"Where is this going?" Leah asks.

Sam gives a heavy sigh, not happy that people won't stop and listen. "If Victoria's working with a human, because we all know that they're so easily persuaded, then she could have the human watching us. I don't know who it could be, but it's possible. Anyway, if she has someone watching us, then that person is probably telling her when we're on patrol and that it's not safe for her to come in to attack. Therefore, if we stop patrols, then that person will say that's it is safe for her to come in. She'll come in and we'll be ready."

"We won't be ready if we aren't phased." Seth says. This surprises me a little because Seth is usually one that likes to go ahead with the plan and sees from whoever's perspective.

"Hold on, there's more. Paul."

Paul stands up in front of everyone next to Sam. "Bella's at the beach a lot. Every time we loose Victoria, it's there. So more than likely, we think she'll attack there. The only time that Bella is at the beach is when someone else is there, too. So she won't be alone and we can phase on the spot if we need to. Also, she probably doesn't know what we look like in human form, giving us an advantage because she won't know that it's any of us. That will throw her off guard and whoever it is mjican start the attack and alert the others."

Everyone stops for a minute to think about it. Quil says, "I think it might work."

"Me too." Embry agrees. "But what if she doesn't do it at the beach?"

"The only other place she would probably do it is at her house since she's alone there expect for Charlie. But Victoria isn't going to think about him. She'll either ignore him completely if she can do it quietly or she'll kill him, too." I shiver at that thought. "So only one person will be on patrol at her house. And only at night probably since Bella has work and everything else going on that she's not home all the time. So only one person from nine to seven will be on each night. I'll go tonight and we'll rotate each night."

"How long are we going to keep this up?" Leah asks.

Sam says, "I'll give it two months. We have until the middle of October for this to work. If it doesn't by then we'll go back to regular shifts." Everyone finally agrees.


	15. Chapter 15

Paul and I stay at the house for a few more hours. Paul says that he'll drive my truck home, then he can just run home in the morning after patrolling. I hope that this plan will work. If not, then who knows when we'll see Victoria next or even catch her. I'm willing to try anything at this point, even if it means we have to go all the way on the other side of the globe. Once she's dead then we can all start to do normal things without having to worry about her. Paul and I won't have her hanging over our heads and we can move on.

"Please be careful out there." I say as I close the truck door.

Paul walks over to my side and gives me a chaste kiss. "I will be," he says. "I'll see you in the morning. I'll come in after your dad leaves."

"Ok. I think they're leaving at seven."

"Alright. I'll see you a little after, then. Love you."

"I love you, too."

He starts to run down the road to go in the woods and phase. I go up to my room and grab some clothes. I take a shower and brush my teeth for bed. It's nine thirty, which is early for me to be getting ready for bed, but Charlie is leaving early tomorrow to go fishing with Billy and Harry. Paul is coming over pretty much as soon as they leave. He wants to go hiking and I really must love him since I agreed to it.

With everything that's going on now, I find it hard to fall asleep. Paul's out there now and he's the only one phased. If something happens, he can alert the others but they aren't phased so that's going to delay them. More time it will take them to phase and get over here. Then I think about how I watched as Edward had started to tear James to pieces and then watched as Emmett, Jasper and Alice finished him off. I know that if little Alice can kill a vampire, then I shouldn't have to worry about Paul and the rest of them, but still. Victoria is smart and sneaky. She could just come in out of nowhere and then disappear like she has been. Somehow I get my mind to shut up for a little bit and fall asleep.

I wake up with a head ache. I didn't sleep well. Between being worried about Victoria coming and then having another dream about her and the wolves, it was a terrible night of sleep. Charlie's in a good mood when I walk downstairs after I get dressed, though. He's drinking his coffee and eating some breakfast. He offers to make me something, but I tell him no. Paul and I are going to have breakfast before we leave.

Paul's truck pulls in the driveway just as Charlie is walking out the door. Paul goes around to the back of the truck to get something, but I don't know what. He and Charlie talk for a minute before Charlie gets in his car to go pick up Billy and Harry for their fishing trip. Paul walks up to the house with a few grocery bags in his hands.

"What is all of this?" I ask.

"Breakfast." He walks in and goes straight to the kitchen. He lays all of the bags on the table and starts unpacking them.

"I thought we were going out." I say.

"Well," he starts. "I decided that that is just too boring and ordinary. So, I got pancake mix, bacon, eggs, juice and hash browns," he pulls everything out as he says it. "And I have water and some snacks in the car for later."

"Ok, then. Let's eat, I guess."

"Well, since I can't really cook, I figured you could show me then I could help," he says with a cute smile on his face.

I roll my eyes. "Get the blue and red bowls out of that cabinet." I point behind him.

I put him in charge of the eggs and hash browns since you really can't screw those up. I put the bacon in the oven and set the timer. "How many pancakes do you want?" I ask him.

"Three. Actually, make that four."

Paul starts to get plates for us after the food is made. I pour some juice in cups and take forks out of the drawer. The microwave goes off and I set the syrup on the table as well. Paul and I sit down and dig into the food. "Are you ok, Bella? You look like something's wrong."

"No, I'm fine. I have a little bit of a headache; nothing I can't handle or fix with some Ibuprofen. It's you I'm worried about. Aren't you tired from patrolling all night?"

"No. I only stayed awake until midnight. I slept the rest of the night."

"Oh, thanks for being awake to protect your girlfriend if she needs it."

"Trust me, Bella, even if I was asleep I would've know if a vampire was coming. I can smell their nasty, sweet smell from two miles away. It would've woken me up because it's so repulsive."

"Do they really smell that bad? I always thought they smelled nice."

"Yeah, you and you're weak human nose. Everything is heightened with us and them. We smell repulsive to them and the other way around. To a human, you don't get that and you think it's nice."

Paul helps me with the dishes and putting things away. We leave the house around 8:30. Paul drives towards one of the parks out of town where we can follow a trail in the mountains. Thankfully the weather is really nice and not too hot or rainy. It's sunny and just cold enough to wear jeans for myself.

Paul throws a water bottle to me, then laughs when I block my face instead of catching it. "I threw it right to you. You could've caught that."

"I don't like it when things are coming towards my face."

Paul and I start up the trail and see that there isn't very many people here. Good, less people to embarrass myself in front of. It's not a steep trail, but still it's enough to make me stumble and trip a few times because of the rocks and dirt. Luckily Paul is holding my hand and prevents me from just completely falling on my face. Until we're about two and a half miles up. Paul and I are walking, talking about random things and not really paying attention to the trail under our feet. There's a large rock that neither of us see, and of course I fall on it. I fall so hard that I pull Paul down with me.

"You ok?" he asks.

"Yeah, I think so. You cut your hand." I point to the hand that has a little bit of blood coming out of it. But the cut starts to heal almost immediately.

"It's fine. With all that werewolf magic it's as good as new."

I think I feel something on my leg so I pull up my pant leg and see a small trail of blood coming down from my knee. It's pretty nasty; I think I hit another rock when I fell. "Ouch."

"That doesn't look too good, Bella. Maybe I should take you to the ER and get some stitches."

"No, I don't think that's necessary."

"Can you walk on it?" He pulls me back onto my feet and holds my hands as I limp a little. "Are you sure I shouldn't take you?"

"It's fine. Really."

"Can I at least take you home and wrap it up?"

"Yeah, I think that would be best."

"Do you think you can make it to the car, or should I carry you?"

"I think I can make it."

I make it about half way before I ask Paul to carry me. He sets me in the front seat of the truck and starts to head back home. He stops at a drug store to pick up a few things first, though, so that he can take care of my knee. It's probably a good thing we left when we did because it starts to pour.

"Sorry I ruined our trip."

"You didn't ruin anything. We can find something else to do."

I unlock the house and walk in, going straight to the bathroom with Paul behind me. He helps me up on the counter and starts to clean it and wrap it. Charlie comes home early probably because of the rain. He comes upstairs to put his fishing gear away and sees us in the bathroom.

"Fall down?" he asks.

"Yes. I took Paul down with me too when I fell."

"Must have been a pretty nasty fall."

"I tried to get her to let me take her to the ER, but she wouldn't let me." Paul says without looking up from what he's doing. Charlie only shakes his head and leaves.


	16. Chapter 16

"There, all wrapped up and everything. I would take some Tylenol if you have any pain. And don't put too much pressure on it." Paul starts putting things away in the bathroom drawers.

"Good thing MC Sports isn't a lot of physical labor, then."

"Speaking of, we got really behind on a house because of weather. Dad says early mornings and not getting off until six or seven this week. I don't think I'll be around much."

I pout my lip a little. "That sucks. I can bring dinner to you guys if you want."

"You don't have to do that."

"What if I want to."

"Hey, I wasn't stopping you, by any means. You know I can't pass up a meal and I'm sure dad would appreciate it."

"Then it's settled. I'll bring dinner to your house next week so that you and your dad don't have to worry about it."

"I love you." he kisses my lips.

"I love you, too."

Paul and I go downstairs and he helps me settle on the couch. I hear a small grumbling and look down. I'm hungry. Then I hear a bigger grumble and look at Paul. "We can get pizza if you want. Marco's delivers." Paul orders the pizza and hands me a plate. He picks out a comedy from the movie shelf and pops it in. We cuddle on the couch while eating and watching the movie.

I only pay attention to about half of the movie though. My thoughts become distracted as I take a slice from my plate with my left hand. My bare left hand, to be exact. A flood of memories come back to me then. Edward wanting to get married. The dream I had the night that Paul told me about him. Even some memories of hopping on a plane to visit Charlie during the summer when I younger.

Yes, everything comes back to me with the simple look of my ringless finger. I don't think that I have ever considered marriage. Not now while I am still eighteen, at least. I mean, it's just a piece of paper that shows how much you love someone. Why spend so much time and money to prove to prove it? Why do you need a fancy dress and flowers and cake and tuxes and two hundred people to witness when you can just go to the courthouse and have it done cheaper and more private?

Not that I really want to get married anyway. I saw what happened to my parents. I was too young to remember when my mom left, but that doesn't mean that it still affects me. Getting on a plane every summer to visit Charlie for two weeks kind of sucked. Yes, I always did enjoy seeing him, but the older I got, the more tiresome it became. I got older and busier with life. I stopped coming when I was fourteen. Not that I didn't want to visit, I just became busy with life. Renee got married to Phil and after that we were always on the road with his baseball schedule. Then school would start and there was just no time to visit. Whenever there was a free week or two to visit, I just didn't want to get on one more plane ride that I didn't need to.

I'm not fully opposed to marriage. But I don't want a huge wedding and I definitely don't want to get married now. Why get married young and have it end in divorce when you can wait and be sure of what you're doing? So, it Paul does propose, I'll say yes. I won't be waiting for it and I'll be sure to tell him that I don't want to marry young.

I also remember that dream I had when Paul told me about him and the pack and imprinting. I dreamed that Paul and I were walking on the beach and a little boy and girl ran up to us, calling us mommy and daddy. I wanted to think that it was a happy dream, but I don't know if I really want kids. I have always seen kids as a nescience. I used to watch the neighbor boys back in Phoenix. They weren't terrible, but they were still annoying enough. Ever since, when I envision a kid all I can think of is crying and snot dirty diapers and kids running around and yelling. Also, I don't want to have to go through the actual pregnancy and birth process. Gaining so much weight and then pushing an eight pound baby out does not sound like fun.

And do Paul and I not have enough to worry about right now? I mean, Victoria is still out there waiting for the perfect time to come kill me. As if that alone isn't enough to be worried about right now.

"That was a good movie, Bella. Did you like it?" I am suddenly taken out of my thoughts by Paul.

"I didn't really pay attention to the last half of it, to be honest. There's too much to think about." I admit.

"Like what?" he asks and I don't want to say exactly everything that I was thinking about.

"The future." I hope that he doesn't press me any further.

"Oh." he pauses for a moment and looks down and for a second I think he's thinking what I'm thinking. "Bella, when I think about the future, you're the only thing that comes to mind. You're the only person that I can see being in my future. I don't see anything else. And I'm not going to let anything- illness, arguments, or other people- come between us and try to ruin what we have. Nothing is worth losing you."

"Not even vampires?"

He laughs a little. "No, not even vampires can come between us."

Both of us turn to the stairs when we hear stomping. Charlie comes in rubbing his eyes. "Have a nice nap, dad?" I ask.

"Yeah. I hope you two are behaving in here."

My face becomes red and I hide in Paul's shoulder. "Nah, we're good, Charlie." he says. "There's pizza in the kitchen if you want some."

"Alright." he goes into the kitchen and we don't hear from him again.

"That was embarrassing." I say when I know that he's out of hearing range.

"Bella, that can't be the most embarrassing thing that he's ever said."

I think about it for a second. "I guess not. I think the castrating comment pretty much won that award. At least with Edward, he just straight up told me that he didn't want me with him and he wanted me with Jake. Actually, I think he still wants me with Jake over anyone else."

"I think Jake still wants to be with you, too."

"Well, good luck with that. I don't think things will ever be the same between us."

"Sure they will." he encourages. "I'm sure that Jake will imprint someday and things will go back to normal. Or as normal as they are with werewolves in the mix."

"If he ever imprints. Isn't it supposed to be rare?"

"We thought so. But four of the eight of us have imprinted. It wouldn't surprise me if more of us did."

"Even Leah?" I kind of hope that she does imprint if it means that she'll be put out of her misery with everything that happened between her and Sam.

He sighs. "I'd like to say yes, but I honestly don't know. We didn't know that girls could phase, much less imprint. I guess it's possible, but I don't know for sure."

"I hope she does. I don't want her to be miserable forever."

"I know. None of us do. We all want her to be happy. Sam and Leah hate being in each others heads as much as the rest of us do. Leah ahs to constantly see Sam and Emily together and Sam has to constantly see what he did to her. It's not fair for her at all. And Sam still hates himself for what he did."

"If he hates himself so much, then why did he do it?"

"I thought you understood. Imprinting is so much more than just love at first sight. It's not an easy thing to get out of, not for the one who imprints, at least. It's so much more absolute and harder to get out of the longer you've been in the relationship. But if the other person changes her mind, you have to accept it."

"I didn't realize it was that hard to get out of. Of course, I don't want to test that theory out."

"Me either."


	17. Chapter 17

It's late before Paul leaves. We eat the leftover pizza for dinner and watch another movie that I actually pay attention to. When the credits start to roll, he gets up.

"I should be going." He pulls me up off of the couch and we hold hands while I lead him to the door.

"Who's out tonight?" I ask.

"Embry tonight. Jake tomorrow. I'm supposed to be on Thursday, but Seth and I are switching because of my crazy schedule this week, so I won't be out until next Sunday."

"What time do you want me to come over with food?"

"We're probably not getting off until six at the earliest each night. I can give you a key, though, and you can come over whenever you need."

"Taking the next step, huh? I'm getting a key to your house." I joke.

"Well," he starts. "Dad did say that you can come over whenever you want."

"Alright. I'll be there. Be careful going home. It looks like a pretty wicked storm coming in." I look at the dark gray clouds coming in from the east. "Will Embry be ok out there?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine. I'll see you later. Love you. I will call you tomorrow if anything happens. And stay off that knee as much as possible if you can." He says firmly.

"I love you, too. And you don't have to worry about my knee too much."

After one more goodbye and kiss, he gets in his truck and leaves. I have to go into work at eleven tomorrow morning, so I limp my way upstairs to grab my clothes. I open the window and see Embry's golden eyes staring back at me in the darkness. The air has chilled and the wind's picked up. The first couple of rain droplets fall on my hand.

"You'll be ok tonight?" I ask quietly, knowing that he can hear me just fine.

He nods his head as a response. I close the window and go into the bathroom for a shower. I start to unwrap the bandage on my knee and see that the blood is mostly starting to dry up, but it still looks gross. "Ew."

By the time I get out of the shower and ready for bed, the thunder and lightning are in full swing, with the wind whipping tree branches every which way. I lay down in my bed and try to ignore the sounds of rain and wind and thunder. Even after living in the Pacific Northwest for a little over a year, I still find it difficult to fall asleep and I lay there for an hour before I finally drift off.

I wake up from my sleep really early and almost jump out of bed. I hear something breaking and get scared immediately. I shoot up in bed at the sound of glass shattering. Oh no. This is it. Victoria is here and coming to kill me. I wonder if she already got to Charlie. I prepare myself for my death. Where the hell is Embry? I look around the room and don't see anything. I think about calling her name, but I decide not to.

I look around the room again and see the broken window. The tree branch keeps swinging into the room and I realize what happened. The wind knocked the tree branch so hard that it broke the window. "Shit." I say. Charlie won't be too happy about this. I carefully get out of bed and turn the light on to asses the damage. "Really?" I say when it doesn't turn on and I realize that the electric is out.

I take my blanket and pillow and go back to sleep on the couch. I take my phone with me, too, in case work calls to say that I don't have to come in. I hope not. With my knee still looking and feeling kind of bad, and now with my window the way it is, I don't want to go work.

Charlie wakes me up a while later. "Power's out."

"I know." I say as I wake up. "I figured that out already when I came down here. You need to look at my window. Tree branch broke it."

"Completely?"

"I think so. I didn't get to really look at it with no lights."

Charlie goes up to look at it grumbling. I follow him slowly. He lets out a heavy sigh and says, "Guess I should call insurance," then goes downstairs.

I make it down in time to catch the door. Embry is there, still yet even in human form. "Hey." I step outside with him.

"Hey. Are you ok? I heard the window break, but I didn't see any vampires, so I figured it was just the storm."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I thought it was Victoria, too. Then I was getting angry that you weren't there, but I realized it was just the storm that broke the window."

"Is it bad?"

"Shattered. None of it hit me, but the glass went a good ways into the room. My dad is calling insurance right now."

"Good. No power?"

"No. I'm supposed to work today. I need to call to see if I have to go in."

"Ok. If you guys need anything, just call one of us."

"Thanks, Embry. Does Paul know?"

"No, I just got off and haven't called Sam yet on the report. Although I don't see why we have to call him everyday if nothing has happened." he complains.

"So nothing new?" I ask, always a little more frustrated than I am the night before.

"Nope. And even if there was, it probably would be washed out with the rain by now anyway."

"Alright. I guess I will see you later then. Thanks again."

"No problem, Bella. You're part of the pack, too, you know."

I smile a little. "Yeah, I know. Were you ok?"

"I was fine, Bella. I found some shelter to stay under."

"Good. I don't want you guys to get struck by lightning or something stupid like that."

"You worry too much. We are perfectly safe." he says. "I gotta get going. Report to Sam and all that."

Embry takes off in a jog towards home. I call my boss and she says not to come in because there's no power there either. Charlie says that someone from the insurance company is coming today to look at the window and see if the tree created any other damage. Surprisingly, though many don't have electric, we're only one of few people in Forks that has damage. Paul asks if I'm ok a little later when he calls me. I tell him that we're fine, with only a broken window and no electric. Him and his dad still have power, and also offer to help if we need anything. I tell him that I have to go when I hear the insurance guy knocking on the door.

I show him upstairs to my room and he looks at the window and writes somethings down on a paper. While he does that, I inspect the floor for anymore glass that maybe I didn't sweep up earlier. He gives me the paper and tells me a few things that I try to remember so that I can relay them back to Charlie when he gets home from the station. I just place the paper on the fridge and hope for the best when he gets home.


	18. Chapter 18

Monday morning rolls in and I have trouble getting up. Many factors contribute to this. First, my window hasn't been fixed yet, so I'm still sleeping on the couch. Our couch isn't all that comfortable and it leaves me waking up with a hurting neck and back. I also wake up with a headache and quickly take something after breakfast. Second, while it's getting better, my knee still hurts. Hopefully the Tylenol will help the headache and my knee. Third, we got power back at work yesterday and I'm scheduled to work ten to four today and tomorrow. So when my phone alarm goes off at 8 o' clock, I don't want to even think about waking up.

Unfortunately, work calls and I have to get up and get ready. When I limp into work, Chase looks at me with a weird look. "Are you limping, Bella?" he asks.

"Yeah. My boyfriend and I went hiking the other day and I fell. I hit my knee pretty hard and cut it open on a rock."

"Did you get stitches?"

"No, they weren't necessary. Paul just wrapped it up."

"That's a bad day."

"Nah, it isn't the worst that has happened to me."

Work is slow today and I don't know if it's because of the rainy weather again or because some people still don't have electricity. There are a couple of lines down still and a few roads closed because of it. I fold shirts and hang clothes on hooks and hangers and check out the occasional customer, but that's about it. Alyssa helps one customer in the shoe department. The person asks me what shoes would be best for running and I point her in Alyssa's direction because that's her specialty.

After work I run home quick to get the things I need to make dinner for the night. The guy coming to fix my window is coming at five, so I had to cook the meat last night for Nick and Paul's dinner. I rush home and finish the sloppy Joes, throw it into a container, being sure to keep some out for Charlie and I, and grab the buns and macaroni salad. I rush out the door and drive to their house. Paul gave me a key so I just put everything in the fridge and scribbled a quick note.

_Sorry I can't stay. The guy is coming to fix the window this evening. Everything is in the fridge. Enjoy. Maybe I'll see you guys tomorrow. I was thinking tacos. :)_

I get home and wait on the guy to come. He gets there ten minutes after I get home and I show the man- whose name I learn is Derrick- up to my room and he gets started on the window. I am so glad that it is getting fixed today. I can sleep in my bed tonight! I won't wake up with an achy neck and back in the morning and then maybe I will actually be ok with having to work in the morning. Did I really just think that? I ask myself. It isn't that I don't like working here at MC Sports. It just is not my ideal job. Bella Swan working at a sports store? I shouldn't even be within a five mile radius of one. But it was either there or Mike's parent's store that was hiring at the time. I think I will work here, I thought when I was looking and thankfully I got the job and didn't have to apply there.

I don't want to work with Mike. He's a friend and he's always going to stay at that. Nothing more. He may want to date me, but I don't want to date him. Besides, him and Jess are still together. At least I think they are. To be honest I haven't really talked to either one of them since my grad party and I just don't really care to keep up with other people's relationships. I think it's weird to butt in with that.

Derrick comes downstairs a little bit later, saying that he's done with the window.

"Great. Thank you so much." I say.

"You're very welcome. I'm sorry, I don't think I got your name earlier." he says.

Weird. "Bella."

"Well, Bella. Are you free this Saturday?" he asks.

I start to get a little uncomfortable and wish that Charlie was here. "No, I'm not free. I have plans all day with my boyfriend." I say.

"Oh. Sorry." he scratches the back of his neck, looking awkward. It's a mutual feeling between the two of us.

Charlie walks through the front door and Derrick immediately looks professional as he should and says, "It was nice meeting you, Miss." He walks out where Charlie came in and tips his head. "Sir."

Charlie closes the door behind him. He takes off his boots and hangs his belt up before saying anything. "So the window is all fixed?"

"Yeah."

"Did you make sure it's done right?

"Dad, he came down the steps just before you walked in. And even if it wasn't done right, I wouldn't be able to tell. You know that. I am not the construction type. You're lucky if I can pick the right tool if you ask me."

"This is very true. You got that from your mother. She couldn't recognize a Phillips screwdriver if it was the only one in the toolbox. Isn't Paul into construction?" he asks as an afterthought.

"Yes. His dad owns the company in La Push and Paul works for him. I don't know what he does exactly, though. I think he just kind of does whatever needs to be done."

"That's good, Bella. He's handy and that is never a bad thing."

"I know."

I heat up the sloppy Joes and fix plates for Charlie and I. We eat at the table together and make small talk. We ask each other about our day at work, he asks me about how my knee is doing and I ask him if he's planning on fishing with Harry and Billy anytime soon. They're thinking about going all day Saturday and Sunday and he asks if that's ok.

"Dad, you don't need to ask me if it's ok that you go out for the weekend. I will be fine. I think I have to work on Sunday anyway."

"Alright. I just want to make sure that you are ok here by yourself before I leave you here alone."

"Dad, I think that I will be ok. I can go to Angela's if I have to." I tell him just to make him feel at ease a little bit. But really, I don't think I would go to her house. I would probably go to Paul's house and stay in the guest bedroom. I would feel safer there than anywhere else because Paul would be there if Victoria tried to come. Of course Charlie doesn't know any of this and it will remain like that.


	19. Chapter 19

I was only able to stay and eat with Paul and Nick on Tuesday this week because of work. By Friday I'm ready to have a day off and I'm thankful that the only thing I really have to worry about is making the spaghetti for them. Charlie comes home from work and starts to gather his fishing gear and put it in his car for tomorrow morning. I make sure that he has something ready for dinner and gather what I need to take to Paul's house.

I unlock the door and place everything on the counter. I find the pot that I need, fill it with water and set it on the stove to boil as I get the salad ready. It doesn't take me long to find everything that I need. I've had time this week to snoop through the house a little. I've looked through picture albums and the mass collection of DVDs in the living room. I learned that either Paul or Nick likes to read historical novels and I also found a few architectural books, but that doesn't surprise me. There is no shortage of food in the house, but that doesn't surprise me either because Paul and the rest of the pack is constantly eating, especially after a patrol. Today, as the spaghetti is keeping warm on the stove waiting for Nick and Paul to come home, I look through the book shelf again and see a book that I don't remember seeing earlier. It's entitled _The Quiluete Tribe's History. _I take it off the shelf and flip to a random page and start reading.

I skim over the history of how the tribe came to be. I find a few legends, including the one about imprinting. I see the whole family tree for the Quiluetes, documenting every branch of it and having a special symbol next to those who were and are wolves. I notice that it's the same symbol that Paul and the rest of the pack has tattooed on their arms. Nick doesn't have the symbol next to his name, and neither does Billy. The gene must have skipped their generation for some reason.

"Hey, nosy."

I turn and see Paul standing with his arms crossed over his chest, a small smile playing at his lips. "Hi, Paul. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been going through your stuff." I close the book and push it across the coffee table.

He looks at what book I had. "Learn anything?"

"Jake and Quil are cousins."

"Yes. Anything else?"

"I can't remember everything. When did you get home? I didn't hear you come in."

"Just a minute ago. Dinner smells good."

"Thanks. Where's your dad?"

"It's just us two for dinner. He went out to dinner with a few of the other head people."

"Oh. The spaghetti is done if you're hungry."

"I'm starving."

Paul loads his plate up and I get my smaller portion for myself. Both of us sit in the dining room and dig in. As always, Paul compliments my cooking and tells me that he's glad to have me as a girlfriend. "Your knee looks a lot better." he adds.

"It feels a lot better." I say.

After a few seconds he says, "You have a birthday coming up in a few weeks. What do you want?"

"There's only one thing that I want." I say about them killing Victoria.

"I know that. But is there anything else that you want? Anything that I can get you?"

"No. I don't want anything. I've never been one for celebrating birthdays and stuff."

"Can I please get you something?" He begs, pouting his lip out just a little, but it's enough to put me over the edge.

"As long as it doesn't cost a dime." I give in.

He smiles. "Ok. Easy. I already have something in mind. And it won't cost even a penny. Do you have anything planned for this weekend?"

"No, I don't think so. Charlie is going fishing with Billy and Harry tomorrow and Sunday, so he won't be home at all. Speaking of, can I stay here tomorrow night, or you stay at my house? I just don't want to be alone in case something happens. I mean, I know that someone will be out there and it's not like my dad could really do anything anyway if she were to come, but I would feel better if you were at my house or if I was at yours."

"Yeah, that's fine. I can come over. If she knows that you're home alone, it would be better anyway because she might want to attack if you're alone. So I'll come over tomorrow night."

"Thank you. Seriously, you don't know how much better I'll feel if you do that."

"No problem, babe. Anything to make you feel safer, especially with the current situation."

"The current situation sucks." I state, almost in a bitter tone.

"I won't disagree with you there. It'll all be over soon though and we can get back to living normal lives."

"As normal as our lives can be. I think the word normal is beginning to lose its meaning."

"I think the meaning has been lost for a long time, Bella."

"Probably."

After we're done eating, Paul loads the dishwasher and I put the extra food in containers to put in the fridge. I wipe the table off and Paul puts the last thing in the dishwasher. We settle on the couch with the book that I found and Paul goes through it, pointing out important things and answering questions when I have them. He tells me how Jake is technically supposed to be alpha, with Sam under him, but that he gave it up because he didn't want to be in a pack, much less be the leader. He also tells me that one of the pack members could be Embry's sibling because no one knows who his dad is, only that it has to be either Billy, Harry, or Sam's dad, Josh.

I ask him about why Nick and Billy and lot of the other pack dads weren't wolves. He said that the werewolf gene is only triggered by the presence of vampires. Paul tells me about a clan that was in the area during his grandfather's generation. There were no vampires by the time Nick, Billy, and Harry were old enough to phase, so the gene skipped them. Then not long after the Cullens arrived in Forks, Sam phased and Jared shortly after him. Paul came next and the pack kept growing while the age of the boys kept getting younger and younger since Victoria's been near. With Seth being only fifteen, he's the youngest of the pack. We're hoping that Victoria will be dead soon, not only because we want all of this to be over with, with her. We also don't want anyone else to phase. If we're right, twins Colin and Brady are next to phase, and they're even younger than Seth. No one likes to even think about it.

"Hey, kids. Showing Bella the tribe's history, Paul?" Nick comes in and peers over our shoulders from behind.

"Yeah, dad." he responds and closes the book.

"There's a lot that you still haven't learned, Bella."

"I can see that. This book is huge." I comment.

"There's a lot that even Paul doesn't know. I don't even think that I have had the time to really look at it and read everything about us. But you guys will learn soon enough. It's only a matter of time. How are the patrols going, Bella? I don't think Paul has really had the chance to talk to anyone."

"Same as always. No leads or anything. Quil thought that he had something last night, but it was just a deer that went by. That's been the most exciting thing that has happened in a while."

"I can't imagine your frustration at this point. For all of you."

"You have no idea." Paul says.


	20. Chapter 20

Paul says that he'll be over sometime tomorrow afternoon. He leads me out to my car and kisses me goodnight. I leave La Push just before dark and catch Leah in the corner of my eye at one point as she's running to patrol at my house for the night. Leah and I still haven't really talked much in the couple months that we've known each other. The only time we do talk is when it involves the pack, and even then it isn't much or we aren't speaking directly to each other. I'm too shy and she's still angry at the world about Sam and everything that happened there. It isn't fair to anybody that it happened, but I think that even if there was no werewolf magic that happened, him and Emily would have been together eventually. Just like I think Paul and I would have found each other eventually, even if Edward or Jake were in the picture.

Leah leaps across the road as soon as I pass her and heads in the direction of the house. It's dark and I have a hard time seeing the wolves anyway because of the speed they can go. Jake said that they're faster than vampires. I never asked Edward how fast he can run, but I know that it's fast than probably most cars can go. So I can't imagine how fast the wolves go if they're faster.

I pull in the driveway. The porch light is on and the light from the TV is filtering through the window. It's a little early so Charlie is probably awake still. I walk in and lock the door. I see Charlie on the couch watching a volleyball game on the Olympics. It's the only thing that has been on for a while and with it being the beginning of August, they're on the last of the events for the year. I say a quick hello to him and ask him when he's leaving in the morning. He's going to be gone before I even wake up to go to Billy's house. Paul won't be here until the afternoon, so that gives me about half the day to clean the house tomorrow.

I've almost have been neglecting it. I've had to work so much this week and take food over to Paul and Nick and I either haven't had the time or the energy to do a single thing around the house. Charlie was nice enough and did the dishes for me today. I run upstairs and take the growing pile of clothes out of the bathroom to throw in the washer. I better start now, I guess. I'll do clothes tonight and clean the rest of the house tomorrow.

Charlie goes to bed early. I dry the clothes and fold them. I put my stuff away and set Charlie's on the couch for him to put away in the morning. I shower quickly and head off to bed around midnight. When I wake up, there's a message from Charlie on the fridge, telling me not to do anything that could get me in trouble and to go to Angela's if I don't want to be alone. Charlie may not hover, but he can be very protective when he isn't home or when it comes to who I'm with. He doesn't interrogate me, but he always makes sure to call when he's gone overnight. Maybe it's just the police chief in him.

I eat some breakfast and wash my bowl and spoon. I throw some clothes on and put my hair in a ponytail. I check the fridge and decide that if Paul is going to be here tonight, then I should go shopping. I run to the store quickly and put everything away before cleaning the rest of the house. I make sure that there is pillows and sheets in the closet for Paul to have the couch tonight. I scrub the bathroom down and make sure to vacuum and straighten up the living room. Once I'm satisfied with the house, I find a book to occupy my time while I wait another hour before I hear the knocking on the door.

He stands at the door, a small book bag over his shoulder and a smile on his lips. I don't know whether it's a cute smile or a sexy smile. "Hey, babe." He walks in and sets the bag on the floor by the door before taking my face lightly in his hands and kissing me.

"Hi." I finally manage to get in.

"How are you today?"

"I'm fine." I say in an odd tone. "You're being awfully charming already today. What's up with that?"

"Nothing. I'm your boyfriend. I'm allowed to be charming."

"Whatever you say, then. Anything new with the vampire situation?"

"I could answer that question, but I think you already know."

"Of course. I'm beginning to think that she forgot about me or something."

"Nah, she wouldn't forget about you. She has spent too much time and effort trying to get you already. She wouldn't waste that time just to forget about you."

"No, she wouldn't, but I wish she would."

"I do, too. Even if she did forget about you, we would still be on the hunt for her. She will die either way."

"Have I told you how much I love you lately?" We look into each others eyes.

"No, not today." he answers.

"Well, I love you. A lot."

"I love you, too, Bella."

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm always hungry." Paul takes my hand and leads me to the kitchen. He grabs a few paper plates and sets them on the counter. I take the bread out of the cupboard and the things for sandwiches out of the fridge. We assemble our sandwiches, mine being small compared to his mile high sandwich and chips on the plate.

"How can you guys eat so much?" I say. You would think I'm used to the eating habits of the pack by now, but it still amazes me at how much they can eat.

"When you're a wolf, you burn a lot of calories. Not only because of the running, but also because of our temperature."

"What temperature do you run usually?"

"Around 108. And it's a good thing that we heal fast because there's no way we can see a doctor with that temperature. Or we'd have to see the leech doctor."

"Who's out tonight? Is it Jake?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"Does he know that you're here, I mean, for the night?"

"No. I don't think so, at least. We haven't really talked, still. Not since the imprint and not unless it has to do with Victori ia. I think he's still angry about the imprint and everything."

"He's going to have to get used to the idea of us being together. And it's already been two and a half months."

"That's the problem. I don't think he will get used to it. Unless he imprints on someone, I don't think that he will get over you. Even if he does, it will probably be a long time before he does."

"That's the thing I hate. He isn't guaranteed to imprint on someone. And if he stops phasing before he does imprint, then he won't and he'll never get over the fact that I'm with you and not him." We sit down at the table and start eating.

"I don't think he even wants to imprint. He doesn't like the idea. He thinks that the imprint takes over and leaves us with no control over ourselves. We phase when we're angry and the imprint is a force. He doesn't want something to happen like with Sam, Emily and Leah again. That's why no one is in serious relationships since we started phasing."

I take it in, what he just said. I can see his point a little. "Yeah, I understand that, I guess. But if he really loves me or whatever, then he would see how happy I am with you and be happy about that. Or at least not angry and be content about it."

"I don't think it's that easy with him."

I take a chip and put it in my mouth, chewing slowly as Paul looks at me and I think it all over.


	21. Chapter 21

A few hours pass and I'm still thinking about Jake and everything that Paul said. Jake hates the idea of imprinting and I guess I can see his point a little. They can be very controlled by the wolf. Imprinting isn't really in their control. They imprint when they meet the right person, and then the girl pretty much has control over the relationship. Paul said that he will have to support whatever decision I make. But does he have no say in the relationship? He can propose marriage. I'm sure he could propose divorce, too, if something were to happen.

They phase when they're angry, but they can phase voluntarily, too. They have less control over themselves when they're angry, but still, isn't it like anyone with a bad temper? You get mad and you snap without warning. Anyone can do it. And they phase when they aren't angry, too. They phase when they need to protect people. They phase when they want to communicate in "private" with the rest of the pack. They phase just to get away for a while if they want to be alone or whatever.

So, no. They don't have full control over themselves, but they do have more control than he probably thinks or wants to admit. Why is it so difficult for him to see that? No one else, that I know of at least, has a problem with imprinting except for Leah. Leah has a good reason to have a problem with it, though, after everything that happened. Jake isn't in that situation and none of the others will probably in that situation because no one wants to be in a serious relationship now after that happened.

I love Jake and all, but he needs to get over it. I'm sure that he will find the perfect girl for him and I really hope that he does. I'm sure that he feels second place to me all the time, and in truth, he is. He always has been. Edward was my lover and I would always choose him over anyone else, no matter what. Even after he left, Jake was still only my best friend because I always had that small hope inside that Edward was going to come back. And then I met Paul and my whole world was turned upside down. I mean, I think I can actually see myself being with Paul in the future. I could see it with Edward, but everything would've been forced. I would've been pretty much forced into marriage so that he would change me. I don't think that I will feel that with Paul.

Family with Paul is actually a possibility, assuming we both want a family. I'm still not sure and we haven't talked about it. Not yet, at least. Is it bad that I'm afraid of what he'll say, either way? If he says no, then I fear that I might be disappointed. If he says yes then he might be disappointed if I don't want to start a family. It's a tough path to choose. There was no thought about it with Edward because we all knew that it wouldn't happen. One, because vampires can't procreate. If they could, Rosalie and Esme would have had kids a long time ago. Two, I was selfish and I wanted Edward all to myself. "No, Edward, it's ok. I don't want kids. Really, there is no sacrifice." I would always say. At least there is a possibility with Paul now.

"What's wrong, Bella? You look sad." Paul takes the fork from me and dries it off, then puts it in the drawer as he helps me with the dishes after dinner.

"Nothing. Everything is fine." I lie.

He turns to me. "No, it's not. I can tell. Something's wrong."

I sigh. "Jake probably hates me. I always put him second."

"He doesn't hate you."

"He doesn't seem to like me either." I reply.

"Bella, trust me. He doesn't hate you. I hear it in his mind sometimes. He doesn't hold any grudges against you. He's just upset at the fact that it's not him that is making you as happy as you are. He's never actually said it, but he loves you. He loves you just as much as I do. He wants you to be happy. He wants to be the one making you happy. He's not mad at you. He isn't even mad at me, really. Not anymore or not as much as he used to be. He hates the reasoning, not you. Nothing is your fault."

"When did you hear this?"

"A few days ago. Bella, he thinks about you all the time. Leah keeps telling him to shut up about you."

"I should talk to him tonight." I hand him the last of the dishes and the drain the sink. He hands me the towel and I dry my hands off.

"I think that might be a good idea. Just you two. He'll be here in a couple of hours."

We finish cleaning the kitchen up. Paul settles on the couch with the remote and I head upstairs to get a shower. It's been a day of thinking about ten thousand things and my brain is almost overloaded from all of it. It's weird to think of how much so many things can change in less than two years. Going from big city, hot Phoenix to cold, rainy small town Forks and being introduced to the vampires and werewolves is just the start of it. Add in my relationships to them and a whole new fairytale is created. The unpopular new girl moves to a small town and falls in love with a vampire. Vampire leaves and enters the werewolf that will always love the girl, no matter what. But then there is the best friend that wants to be with the girl and it just makes everything even more complicated. The evil vampire is out for revenge because of the girl. And they all lived happily ever after.

I would like to think that but I don't think it's possible. Even Victoria isn't happy. She might now even be happy after she kills me because her mate is eternally dead. Jake can't be happy because of me and who knows how Edward is. No, he's probably happy that I'm not his girlfriend anymore. He probably found some beautiful vampire that he's married to. I always knew I wasn't good enough for him. I guess it doesn't matter now.

I shut the water off and dry off. I slowly get dressed and brush my teeth and hair, knowing that Jake is probably outside right now. I don't really want to have this conversation, but I know I have to. I can't stall any longer, so I slowly go downstairs and into the living room. I cuddle into Paul's side.

"Jake is out there."

"I know. I don't want to do this."

"You need to. It will be good for both of you. It will be better for all three of us."

"Then I guess I shouldn't wait any longer."

I get up and throw a pair of shoes and a light jacket on. The fall weather is rolling in and it's a little chilly tonight. I step out onto the back porch and see Jake's familiar wolf eyes staring back at me.


	22. Chapter 22

"Hey, Jake." I sit on the porch step and we stare at each other for a minute. This isn't going to be an easy conversation and I can feel the tension already. Maybe Paul should come out here, I think. But then I know that it's best if it's just Jake and I. This needs to be settled by just the two of us. "Can we talk?"

He nods his large head and runs off to the woods to phase. He comes out a moment later dressed in the usual cut offs and nothing else. He sits beside me and I can feel the heat of his body radiating towards me. "What do you want to talk about?" he asks.

"Us." I state simply. "And Paul."

He goes a little rigid. "What about us?"

"He's staying here tonight, you know."

"No, I didn't know. Do you not want to be here by yourself while Charlie is gone or something?"

"Yeah. I feel better with him here."

"What, am I not enough protection for you?" He says with a smirk on his face, and I don't think it's a sarcastic one.

"That's not what I'm saying. I feel better with both of you here." There is a silence between us. I wonder if Paul is listening in. "Jake, I know that I am going to sound like a total bitch for saying this, but you have to get over the fact that Paul and I are together. It's not fair to any of us if you still love me."

"Damn right it isn't fair. Bella, when you were with him," he references to Edward. "And then he left, you were so depressed and everyone could tell. Charlie actually talked to Billy a couple of times about how I was helping you get happy again. I knew that I could make you happier than he could and I could love you the right way. Without being at your house every single night just to watch you sleep. We are here every night to protect you and we won't stay longer than we need to. He stayed because he wanted to watch you. Bella, that's creepy. It wouldn't be creep like that with me.

"He can't age. Ever. But I can. All I would have to do is stop phasing and then we could grow old together and not worry about you aging and me not. Face it, I'm better for you. Do you feel this?" He puts his hand on mine. "Warmth. Soft, warm skin. Not that ice cold and hard skin. And a heartbeat."

"And Paul? How is he any different from you? You're both wolves. He's just as warm and alive as you are. So why do you have such a problem with him? It's not fair that that stuff only applies to you and not him."

He scoffs. "When my sisters and I were younger, before mom died, we used to fight all the time. We would always shout that we hated each other just because it was the best comeback that any of us could come up with. Mom always told us that we have to love each other because we're family and we were the only siblings that we had. It's the same thing with imprinting. You're forced to love the other person because of this wolf shit. It's not love if it's forced. It wouldn't be forced with us. Sam wouldn't have left Leah if he didn't imprint or if he could've at least beat the imprint. He loves Emily because he has to. He doesn't get a choice. And it's the same thing with Jared, Quil and Paul."

"That's not true, Jake. It would've happened even if you guys weren't wolves."

"God, Bella, you don't get it." He stands up and turns to face me, using his hands to speak in his frustration. "No, it wouldn't have. People don't just fall in love like that."

I stand up, too, getting angry. "Obviously they do because, for me, it's happened twice. Love at first sight, yeah, I believe in it because it has happened to me twice. I will admit, even with Paul sitting inside my house right now, I loved Edward. It was love at first sight, for me at least. Same with Paul. But you know the thing about it is that Edward broke a promise. Edward had promised that he wouldn't leave and then he did over a stupid paper cut. Jake, Paul isn't going to do that. He's not as sensitive to stuff like that and he isn't so protective that he comes to my house every night to watch me sleep, or insist that he drives me everywhere. Paul is so much better than that."

"Does any of that even matter? He's forced to love you. You say where you want the relationship to go and he'll be whatever you want him to be. How is that fair? Please, enlighten me on how it's fair."

All we do is glare at each other. Neither of us are going to let the other win, and the conversation doesn't look like it's even close to being over. "I love him and he loves me. Why can't you just be happy that I'm happy. That your pack brother is happy."

"Bella, listen to me. You can't be happy if you're forced into something." He starts to shake, not a lot, but it's noticeable. He grabs my arms out of his anger. It hurts even through the sweatshirt. I don't think that he's doing it on purpose, but he's getting really angry and it's started to scare me.

"Ouch, Jake. That hurts."

"Not until you hear what I'm saying."

"I do hear what you're saying, and it's not going to change anything. You're hurting me. Get off!"

"Get the hell off of her." I hear Paul from behind. Jake looks up and I look back, thankful that he came out before this got completely out of control. Jake lets go of me roughly and phases on the fly as he goes back to patrolling, or wherever he's going.

At first, I'm stunned. I didn't think that Jake could get so violent. Not with me, at least. Paul comes up from behind and wraps a hand around my waist. I turn and cry into his shirt. He embraces me and rubs his hands up and down my back in comfort. After standing there for a minute, we silently go inside and sit on the couch.

"Did he hurt you?" He asks quietly.

"Yes," I sniffle. "He was kind of rough."

"Let me see." I take the sweatshirt off and throw it on the floor. He takes my arm and lifts it a little in the light. "He gave you bruises." He looks at the other arm. "He gave you bruises already."

"Please, don't get mad at him." I beg. "He didn't know what he was doing."

"He's been a wolf long enough. He should know how to control his temper by now."

"He's just upset. Don't be mad at him."

"What if the situation was reversed?" He says. I guess he has a point.

"True." I settle. "I wish that things didn't have to be like this. I wish he could just imprint and be happy."

"Hey, nothing is your fault." He wipes a tear away. "He's mad and it's not your fault. It's all on him. Now, you're tired and upset. Why don't you go to bed? Get your mind off of things for a while."

"Ok, sleep does sound good." I admit. It's been an exhausting night.

Paul and I go upstairs and I crawl in bed. He puts the blanket on me, kisses my forehead and says, "I love you. No matter what."

"I love you, too. Stay with me?" I ask suddenly. I think I even surprised myself.

"Are you sure?" he asks, skeptical. Not that I would blame him.

"Yeah, come on. There's plenty of room." I scoot over as far as I can go and he comes in beside me. Somehow, both of us fit on my small bed, but it's a tight fit. We fall asleep, me with my head on his chest and I think I can honestly say that it's the best sleep that I have had in a long time.


	23. Chapter 23

The next morning, I wake up with the sun shining bright through the window. Paul is still sleeping soundly next to me and I never realized just how cute he could be. The only bad part is, is that it's the end of August and he's like a human heater. There's sweat on the back of my neck. I try to wiggle away, but I come close to the edge of the bed and almost fall. Paul, obviously have woken up, catches me before I take yet another fall.

"Careful, Bella." he says.

"Thanks." He pulls me back up by his side.

"You're sweaty." He states bluntly.

"Well, good morning to you, too."

He laughs. "Good morning." He leans over for a kiss. "Did you sleep well?"

"Would it be weird if I said that, despite you being a human heater, it was the best night of sleep in a really long time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. No nightmares. No worries about what or who is out there. Despite everything that happened last night, I could sleep well."

"What nightmares? Have you told me about them?"

"No, I guess I haven't." I say and I wonder why I haven't. "I don't know why I haven't told you about them. I guess I never really thought about it."

"Tell me. What are they about?"

"Mostly Victoria. And you guys. Sometimes Edward, but I mostly just push him out. He's not important."

He looks at me curiously. "What happens?"

"Mostly, the attack. What will happen when she finally is able to get to me. Usually you guys get there too late and she kills me. Or she kills one of you. It never ends how I want it to."

"I wish I could make them go away now. I swear, it won't be much longer."

"How can you say that when you haven't even seen her in months?"

"I know that, at this point, it doesn't seem likely that this will all be over soon. Bella, I can't give you an exact date, but I promise you, by the end of this year she will be dead and we can be safe. You can be safe again and I'm not going to let anything come between us. I swear it."

"I know. And I trust you and I believe you. It's all just so frustrating. Why would she be in hiding if she knows that she can escape? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know, Bella." He shakes his head. "None of this makes sense anymore."

"It never did make any sense."

"No, it didn't." he whispers. "But let's not worry about that stuff today or tomorrow. It's just us two until I have to leave tomorrow. Let's just focus on us this weekend. Go out and have some fun." He removes a strand away from my face.

"Ok." I agree.

We get out of bed. Paul takes a shower and I go downstairs to try to see what there is to make for breakfast. I place the last piece of french toast on the plate as he walks down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Smells great."

"You always say that."

"I know." he smiles.

Paul and I sit down to eat. I run upstairs quickly to change for the day while he starts cleaning up. As I stand in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, I can't help but think of last night. It did not go how I wanted it to at all. Of course not. Why would anything go my way? Stop, Bella. Like Paul said, we're not going to think about that stuff this weekend. It's just us. No one else.

Paul already has the kitchen cleaned up by the time I get downstairs. He spins his car keys on his finger and is waiting by the door. "Ready?"

"Yeah. I just need to put my shoes on."

Paul and I leave early around nine for the three hour car ride to the zoo. Paul decided that we should go because one, it's three hours away from Forks and everything around here. Two, because everyone loves the zoo. It's also one of the few days in Washington that's good to get out. I mean, we could go to the beach, but we want to do something different. Plus, we're trying to avoid the beach unless we're all together.

We get there and go in, first heading towards the food pavilion for lunch. After lunch we work our way around, stopping at each exhibit we pass. It really is just a day of enjoyment and not worrying about anything going on at home. For the day, Victoria doesn't exist. Jake isn't mad. Paul isn't a werewolf trying to protect me from getting killed. It's just Paul and I in peace and with no worries.

Until I hear a thousand kids crying to their parents that they wanted a stuffed lion from the gift store or complaining that they're hungry and whatnot. I am reminded that I probably am not going to have kids unless Paul wants them. And I will put off that conversation as long as I can.

As the end of the day comes near and we know that we have a three hour car ride back home, we go to see the elk and wolves as our last stop. The wolves are out. One is sleeping in a shelter in the back. Another one is playing with some sort of toy. "Look, Paul, isn't it cute?"

"Cute." he scoffs. "Wolves are manly. Not cute."

"I think you're cute." I contradict.

"And you are the only one that is allowed to say that. In private and not around the rest of the boys."

"They'll hear it eventually in your thoughts, you know."

"Then let the comments from them begin."

"Claire calls Quil cute all the time."

"Claire is two. That doesn't count. She thinks every boy cute."

"True. But I still think you're cute."

"Whatever you say, Bella. Let's go home. I'm hungry."

On the way home we stop at a restaurant to eat dinner. Of course, Paul gets much more to eat than I do. I end up taking a box home and he chows down on his entire plate, plus the appetizer.

Paul and I stay up until midnight before we finally squeeze onto my bed again. Even though he's a space heater, I don't mind having him with me. The closer I am to him, the safer I feel. Even if we're only closer by some steps and down the hall, I just feel a lot safer with his arms wrapped around me as we fall asleep.


	24. Chapter 24

At 2:30 I wake up in a cold sweat. I don't know if I'm hot and should move away from Paul a little, or if I'm cold and should move closer to him. I'm indifferent and don't know what to do. Then I get a bad feeling and rush to the bathroom. I make it just in time to get sick and sit there for a minute, getting sick.

I feel Paul pull my hair back. "Go away. You don't need to see me like this."

"No. You're sick. Let me take care of you."

I sit back and rest my head on the side of the sink. I take deep breaths, trying not to get sick again. Paul leaves briefly and comes back with a glass of water. I rinse my mouth out and brush my teeth, trying not to gag on it.

"You must be getting whatever bug is going around." Paul says. "Here, drink some water." He hands me another glass.

"Thanks." I take a sip.

"Do you need anything?"

"I just want to go back to bed."

I lay back down in bed and curl up with the blanket. Paul tells me to yell if I need anything and kisses my sweaty forehead. He shuts the light off and tells me that he'll be on the couch downstairs. I hate to kick him out, but I don't want him to get whatever I have and I don't be in the same bed as him if I'm this sweaty and have a fever. It takes about a half hour, but I finally manage to fall back asleep.

An hour and a half later, I wake up again and rush to the bathroom. Paul tells me that I have a fever of 102. Fantastic. This is just how I want to spend my Sunday with Paul and I'm sure that he feels the same.

"I'm sorry." I say as he hands me another glass.

"Don't be sorry. It isn't your fault."

"I know, but I'm sure that you don't to deal with me when I'm sick like this. It's not fair to you."

"Bella, you're my girlfriend. I'm supposed to take care of you when you are sick. And Charlie isn't here to help, so what choice do I have?"

"I'm sure that this isn't what you meant yesterday by having fun."

"No, this isn't quite what I imagined. But I still get to be with you. Do you want me to run to the store to get something?"

"Some crackers would be great."

"Ok. I'll go get some if you go back to bed."

"Actually, can I just go on the couch?"

"Are you sure? Wouldn't you be more comfortable in your bed?"

"The couch is fine."

I go downstairs and Paul takes the pillow and blanket from my bed to the couch. I get settled with the remote while he runs to the store to get some crackers and fever medicine. I flip through the channels. There is nothing good on at 5 o' clock in the morning. I end up on some mindless cartoon on the kids' channel. Paul returns not long after he left and makes me take the Tylenol and drink tons of water. I don't take the crackers now. I tell myself that I'll wait to have those.

Being sick is exhausting. It's only been a few hours and already I want to go back asleep, but I can't get myself to do it. I keep drinking water and watching the TV, flipping through channels and not finding anything for another two hours when I finally fall asleep. I'm not asleep for long before I rush upstairs again. Paul keeps my hair back without standing too close for me to feel his body heat.

I rinse my mouth out and brush my teeth again. I go back on the couch and Paul sits in the chair across from me. I throw the remote to him and he settles on whatever show is playing on ESPN.

"Hey, thanks." I turn to him and give a weak smile. "For everything today."

He smiles back. "It's not a problem. I'll take care of you no matter what."

"Me, too. Can you get sick? Or is there some freaky wolf magic that makes you not be able to be sick?"

He pauses. "I don't know. No one has been sick yet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see like everything else."

"I don't want you to get whatever I have."

"I want you to get better. I don't care if I get sick. Then you can take care of me."

"True." I turn back to the TV.

Charlie comes into the house a while later. He's home early. "Hi, guys." Charlie eyes Paul and probably wonders why he's here so early. It isn't even ten o' clock yet. "You don't look good, Bells."

"Thanks, dad." I mumble and try to get comfortable on the couch. I haven't gotten sick in two hours, but the fever hasn't done anything. I took another Tylenol a little while ago and I'm still waiting on the fever to go down. "I've been like this since 2:30 this morning."

"Take medicine?"

"Yeah. I called Paul and he got some. He's been here since." I lie. If I tell Charlie that Paul's has been here almost since he left, I don't know if he would have a heart attack first, or kill Paul. "Why are you home so early? I thought you weren't going to be home until later."

"A storm is coming in. We wanted to get out of there before they hit."

Charlie puts his fishing gear away and sits in the other chair. "Did you have a good weekend, Bella?" Charlie asks. "I mean, other than right now."

"It was ok."

"What did you do?"

"We went to the zoo yesterday. That was about it. Jake and I got into a fight."

"About what?"

"He's still mad that Paul and I are together."

"Oh. Give him time. He'll get over it soon." As much as I would like to believe him and Paul, I can't bring myself to do it. Jake hasn't shown anything to me and the episode from the other night didn't help anything. I just can't get away from the situation.

Paul leaves a few minutes later and tells me to call if I need anything. He senses that Charlie wants him out of the house and leaves without even taking his bag from my room because he knows that Charlie will suspect something if he does. I tell him that I'll bring it back when I'm better. He leaves and now it's just Charlie and I. I wish Paul could have stayed, but I don't blame him for wanting to leave with Charlie eying him. I wonder if Charlie suspects anything. I hope not. That would be terrible.


	25. Chapter 25

After Paul leaves, I crash in bed. Sleep sounds like the best thing ever and I definitely take advantage of it. I end up sleeping until 3 o' clock and I feel better, but still not well enough to do anything. I check my temperature and see that the fever has gone down, but it's still there. I take another Tylenol to help it and try to eat some soup. I don't eat very much of the soup and I munch on a few crackers. If this is what Paul was saying, hopefully I'll be over it by tomorrow. I hate being sick.

Charlie asks if I need anything. I tell him no, that I just want to go back upstairs and lay down. I check my phone and see that I have a message from Paul. He asked if I am ok, and I reply telling him that I feel a little better, but not much. I've kept food down, so that's a good sign. He's glad that I'm ok, but he tells me to call him if I need anything. He says that he'll stop by after work tomorrow to check on me. He's such a sweet boyfriend.

I check my email quickly and find nothing but spam. In being sick I find that there is absolutely nothing to do except watch TV, but even then, I don't watch much TV and there probably isn't anything interesting to watch even for a sick girl. I pick up my copy of _Pride & Prejudice. _If there isn't anything better to do, then I might as well reread a book. I was thinking of rereading it anyway, so now I have an excuse. Like that would even matter. I love the classics. _Wuthering Heights _is my favorite and it always has been. I think I read it at least once or twice a year and I never get sick of it.

After reading for a while, I take a shower and hope that will help some. I start to get achy and the hot water helps relieve the tension and helps me relax a little. I think being sick and, deep down though I wouldn't admit it to Paul, knowing that Victoria is still out there, has me tensed up. I hate the feeling, but I can't help it. It's too much going on at once. Edward left almost a year ago and Victoria is still out there somewhere. Why can't she just get over it? Stupid vampires. They never did me any good. I like werewolves now. Paul probably already knows that this is stressing me out, but I won't admit it to him. He's stressed about it and he doesn't want me to worry.

The shower does help relieve the achyness and relaxes me a lot more than I was. I change clothes and go back into my room and continue to read. The boring life a sick teenager. After a while, I go back downstairs to eat a little more and pray that I am well again tomorrow. I hate being sick. It's miserable and boring and just plain stupid.

I wake up feeling much better late Monday morning. I eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast and check my temperature. It's back to normal and that makes me really happy. No more illness and I can get back to having a normal life today. Charlie has to go into the station today so I'm here alone until Paul gets off at two to check on me. Until then I take it easy and fold the laundry that I meant to do yesterday. I feel better, but I don't want to do too much. I have to work tomorrow so I'll save up my energy for that. I go in the kitchen to do the dishes, but there are none. Charlie must have done them yesterday since I was sick.

I hear the rumbling of a truck pull up at 2:45 and that tells me that Paul is here. He walks in the door quietly and peaks his head in the living room where I am. "Hey. You look better." he says.

"I feel better. A lot better." Paul comes to sit by me on the couch and places a kiss on my cheek and puts him arm around my shoulder. "What was that?" I ask.

"A kiss on the cheek?" he questions.

"I don't want a kiss on the cheek," I complain. "Lips."

"I figured you would tell me no since you were sick yesterday."

"I would never reject a kiss from you."

He only laughs and plants a kiss on my lips. "Happy now?" he smiles and I nod. "So, are you well again?"

"Yeah. No fever and I have kept food down. I feel fine."

"Good. I hate seeing you sick. Sorry I couldn't stay longer yesterday."

"Don't worry about it. I know that you didn't want to be here with Charlie here watching over you the whole time. It was really uneventful after you left anyway. You didn't miss anything. Did you just get out of the shower? You smell nice." I ask suddenly.

"Yeah. I didn't think you would appreciate it if I came here sweaty and dirty."

"I'm glad that you did shower, then. I don't want a dirty, sweaty werewolf sitting on my couch." I joke. "When are you out next for patrol?"

"Friday. Tomorrow is September. Your birthday is coming up."

"Yeah. What are you saying?"

"What do you want? Anything? It's not good for a boyfriend to not give his girlfriend something. I already have something in mind, but is there anything that you actually want?"

"I already told you. You can get me whatever you want, as long as it doesn't cost anything. I don't want you to spend money on me. You're already giving me enough by going out there every night and trying to get Victoria."

"So, that's your final answer? As long as it doesn't cost anything?"

"Yes. You and the rest of the pack are doing enough already. It wouldn't be fair if you spent money on me, too."

"Well, tell me if you think of something."

"I will, but don't count on it." I promise him.

"Do you have to work tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Two to eight. It's not so bad. It's better than opening and closing. Do you have a normal schedule this week?"

"Yeah. It's back to normal now. And as it gets closer to winter, things should really slow down as far as big projects go. No one is going to want big outside things done when it's so cold."

"Good. Then maybe we can spend more time together."

"Yeah. Definitely spend more time together." He gives me another kiss on the lips.


	26. Chapter 26

Two weeks go by and still, nothing has changed. Work is still the same. Victoria still hasn't made an appearance or even given any clues as to where she could be. No scent. No clues. I really don't understand how she can be this still after everything. As much as I hate to think of it, I know that she is capable of at least bringing the wolves down. I know that she still wants to kill me; I'm not stupid. But why doesn't she just make an appearance? It's not like she's going to just get over it and stop trying. Either she kills me or she gets killed. Just get it over with!

Is it a bad thing that I'm thinking about this? I'm so over it and, like I've been saying for what seems like forever, I want this over with and I want her to come here. At this point, I don't really care about Leah and the boys going out there when she does come because I know that that'll be one step closer to her being gone forever. I cannot wait for the day. Then life will just be a field of flowers and be perfect. Paul and I can be without worry. What a life.

My inner rambling and complaining takes place as I shower and get ready for work. It's my birthday and I'm already hating it. I'm nineteen. One year closer to getting older. I guess it doesn't bother me as much now that I'm with Paul. He's at least capable of aging and told me that he would when he didn't see the need to phase anymore. Thank, God. I don't want to look like a creep when I'm older and he still looks like he's twenty-one.

Paul told me the other day that he has something planned for tonight. I only raised an eyebrow at him when he told me. He promised me that it wasn't anything big and that we were just going to the beach with the rest of the pack for a bonfire. I can handle that. I just wanted to make sure that he didn't have anything big planned. Last time that happened, things didn't turn out well for anyone.

I head off to work and surprisingly the day seems to fly by. Maybe that just because I am kind of looking forward to tonight. I haven't really done anything different than normal for a while and it has been a few weeks since I've been to La Push. So I can catch up with everyone tonight. I miss them all, even Leah, though we don't really talk much.

I go home after work and change clothes for tonight. It's supposed to be chilly, so I throw on jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. As I get ready, I just get this funny feeling like something is going to happen. Maybe not today, but soon. I don't know what, but I just have that feeling. Maybe I'm just ready for all of this Victoria stuff to be over with or I'm just worrying too much. I push the feeling out quickly and run downstairs when I hear Paul at the door. I think about grabbing a jacket, too, but then I decide that I don't need one if I'll be with Paul tonight.

"Happy birthday, Bella." He says as I walk out of the house and he gives me a kiss.

"Thank you." He opens my car door for me before getting into the driver's seat and heading off to the beach.

Everyone is there already when we park at Sam and Emily's house and walk down right behind the house. Sam is trying to get the fire started. "Hey, Bella. Happy birthday." he says.

"Thanks," I reply. Everyone else says the same thing to me. Sam gets the fire going and tells everyone that they can start getting food. Paul cooks our hotdogs over the fire while I fix the rest of our plates. I sit down on a log by the fire and he comes over with the finished hotdogs and he sits beside me. The rest of the crowd gathers their food, sits and starts to eat.

We talk about anything and everything, nothing different of any other time that the whole group gets together. After we all finish eating, Sam and Emily run back to the house and bring out a cake. Of course, everyone has to embarrass me by singing. I think Jared has the most fun with it and I blow out the candles. She cuts the cake and distributes a piece to each person.

Jared takes a seat beside Paul and I. Kim sits next to him, on the other side. After a minute, Jared asks, "Paul, do you smell that?"

"What?" he asks, sniffing a little.

"Something, I don't know, sweet, maybe? I can't really describe it."

"No, I don't smell anything. Maybe you're just smelling the cake or something."

Jared shrugs and doesn't say anything else about it. A little bit later, Seth says something about the smell, too. All of the wolves sniff and take notice of it. "Where have I smelled that before?" Paul whispers to himself.

"What is it? I don't smell anything." I say. Kim and Emily seem to agree with me. We have weak human noses.

"I don't know. It's really sweet. Sickly sweet. I swear I've smelled it be-." He cuts himself off and goes over to Sam. He whispers something in his ear and Sam just gets a really serious face and nods. Sam calls Seth over, tells him something and he runs off. Paul walks up to Emily, Kim and I. He tells us to go back to the house as soon as Seth comes back. He also tells us to keep the doors locked and close all of the curtains. "And turn the TV on full volume." He tells us without saying anything else. Then he gives me a passionate kiss, the most passionate one yet and says, "I love you, so much."

"I love you, too." I say and then see Seth come from wherever he was in his wolf form. Still completely confused and totally oblivious to whatever is going on, the girls and I do as Paul said and follow Seth back to the house. He stays outside, but we go in. Emily locks the door behind her and goes to lock the front door, too. Kim and I close the curtains upstairs and downstairs and turn the volume all the way up.

We still don't know why we're doing all of this, but we trust that whatever is going on, Leah and the boys have it under control. But why would he want us to turn the TV on? That just seems really odd. Then we hear it. It's probably the most earth shattering sound I've ever heard.


	27. Chapter 27

The three of us gasp at the sound. How could we have been so oblivious to how the pack was acting just a few minutes ago? It's happening. Victoria made her appearance and the pack is out there fighting her right now. I guess Paul wanted the TV on so that we wouldn't hear what is going on, but it does absolutely nothing. We can still hear the whole thing just as well as if it weren't on.

Who knows what's going on out there, but it doesn't sound good. We're all afraid to look out the window and see what's going on. None of us want to see them fighting her. We don't want to see them get hurt if they do and we really don't want to see something worse. And I can't even begin to describe the feelings going through me. Worry, fear, anxiousness. Even a little bit of anger, I think. Not angry about the boys and Leah being out there fighting, so much as I'm mad that I can't do anything about it. All of this is my fault and I'm sitting in the house doing nothing about it. I wonder if I can sneak out and run down there to help. I don't know what I would do other than maybe pose as a distraction for Victoria. Then maybe the pack can catch her off guard and take her down. But how can I get out with Emily and Kim in here and Seth at the door? Plus, the pack- Paul especially- would probably be more angry than anything if I put myself in danger like that. I guess it's better just to stay in.

Minutes could go by, but it feels like hours. Kim paces the floor. Emily sits on the couch, biting her nails like she always does when she's nervous. I take a seat on the floor with my head on the front of the couch. I try not to think about what's going on but it's so hard to when Paul is out there risking his life and when we can hear it. I wonder what the neighbors think and if they're watching. I bet the pack isn't even thinking about that right now and they're only concern is getting rid of the problem.

I hear a whimper come from outside. Seth must be so wanting to get out there and fight. Sam won't let him, though, because he's so young. I can see Sam's reasoning. Seth is so much younger than the rest of them and and can get hurt more easily. He gets so mad when Sam tells him no, but it's good that Seth stay out of the fight. Not that we don't trust him, but we don't want him to accidentally do anything stupid. Leah looks out for him just as much as Sam does, and she would be even more mad at Sam if he let Seth fight Victoria.

I find myself looking at the clock on the cable box every few minutes. Time seems to be moving a mile an hour and not speeding up. How long could this take? Or did something happen? Surely we would have heard someone howl if something happened and we haven't heard one yet. Just a lot of growling.

Kim stops pacing and takes a seat next to me. We try to keep our minds off of everything by watching the TV, but it's no help. I keep thinking about what could be going on our there and wondering if Paul is ok. I'm sure Emily and Kim are wondering the same thing about Sam and Jared, as well as the others. I let out a heavy breath. Kim pats my knee. "They'll be ok. They're strong fighters." She says. Kim always has been the stronger one of us three. Emily looks like she's almost in tears and I wouldn't be surprised if she starts crying soon.

It wasn't until Seth walked in the house a few minutes later that we notice the sounds from outside stopped. We look up at him to see if he says anything. "It's done. She's dead. They're burning her right now."

I don't think I have ever been so relieved in my life. I breath out a sigh of happiness and relief. Kim pulls Emily and I in for a hug and we all lose it then. Tears of absolute joy overflow form our eyes and we are just so happy that this is all done. Seth, probably feeling awkward, said that he was going to go back down with everyone else and that he would send the boys up when they're done with cleaning up.

A half hour goes by when we hear the door open again and Sam is followed by Jared and Paul. Kim and Emily run straight into the arms of their boys and I just stand there looking at Paul. He walks over and wraps his arms around me and I cry into his bare chest. He wraps his arms around me and starts to rub my back in a comforting gesture and whispers in my ear that it's ok and everything is over. There's nothing to worry about anymore. "Do you want to leave? Go back to my place or something?"

"Yeah." I nod. "Your place sounds good."

Paul and I say a quiet goodbye to everyone, including the rest of the pack who walked in shortly after Paul, Sam and Jared. I gave small thank you and left with Paul behind me. On the short drive back to his house, Paul asks, "Why are you crying, babe? This is a good thing."

"I know. I am happy. Very happy. I was worried about you, though. I was worried that you might have gotten hurt or something. I felt like I should've helped, but I know there's nothing that I could have done."

"No," he states bluntly, but on this subject I wouldn't expect anything less of him. "There's nothing you could have done to help."

We walk into the house and see Nick reading the newspaper at the table. "Happy bir-," he starts to say, but I see Paul shake his head, telling him that it's not a good time. Nick seems to understand and stops himself. "I'll leave you two alone." He takes his paper and goes into the office, shutting the door. I'm thankful that we can get some privacy. Charlie would've gone in the kitchen and listened in.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Paul asks.

"Yeah." We sit on the couch and don't say anything for a few seconds. "Was it easy?"

"No. She kept getting away from whoever was coming after us. Quil and I collided when she slipped between us. It took a while before we could actually get her in a good position for her not to be able to get away."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"No. The worst thing that happened was Quil and I knocking into each other, but we were both back up quickly. Once we actually got her it was easy."

"Are people going to ask questions? We could hear everything, so I don't doubt that others heard it, too."

"Probably not. Most people on the Rez know about everything, including the situation. They probably know what went on, especially if they saw the smoke. As long as Embry's mom doesn't find out, we should be fine. How were Emily and Kim?"

"Just as worried sick as I was. We didn't know what was going on. Only that you were out there risking your lives. Kim tried to keep things positive, I guess. But she was stilled worried."

"I can imagine."

"So is this done now? Is everything with the vampires done? Or is there more that I don't know about?"

"No, we're done with the vampires as far as I know. I doubt anyone will come by unless the Cullens decide to come back. I don't see why they would, though."

"I hope not. The second they do, I'm out. I don't want to see them. What does this mean for the pack? Are you still going to phase?"

"Probably for a while, yes. We have to protect the Rez and we can't stop just because one problem is taken care of. We have to still be able to go out and do whatever if needed. But I can promise you that me and everyone else who imprints will stop phasing so that we can age with you girls."

"Good. I don't want to grow up without you."

I see a little smile at his lips and give one in return. "I'm sorry you had a sucky birthday," He looks down almost as if he's ashamed of himself.

"No, Paul, it wasn't sucky. Not at all." Now it's my turn to do the comforting. This was the best birthday ever. Really, it was. I got to spend it with you and the pack. And I got exactly what I wanted. She's dead. Gone forever. She can't do anything ever. We don't have to worry about her. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday than this."

"Well, I guess it was a pretty great birthday, then." He pulls a hair out of my face. "It's been a long day, though. Do you want me take you home?"

"Do you think your dad would mind if I stayed here tonight? Or would he freak out about that?"

"No, he won't care. Let's go upstairs, then." He picks me up off the couch bridal style in one swift movement. I let out a small squeal and then a giggle and wrap my arms around his neck as he carries me up to room. He sets me down in the bedroom and goes over to his dresser, pulling out a pair of shorts and an oversized t shirt of his to sleep in. I go to the bathroom and change. He's already is shorts and a t shirt and sitting on the foot of the bed.

"You look nice." He comments.

"Yeah. I kind of like it. I might steal this shirt."

"Be my guest." he kisses me. We quickly fall asleep with his arms wrapped around me after the long day that we had. But it was a good day.


	28. Chapter 28

I wake up and feel a slight pull on my hair. It's hardly noticeable. Paul must be awake and playing with my hair. I open my eyes and look up a little. Paul has a small strand of hair in between his fingers and he's smiling down at me.

"Good morning." he says.

"Good morning." I reply with a smile in return.

"I have something for you." he states.

"Really? What is it?"

"Your birthday present. I promise, I didn't spend a dime on it." I sit up as he does and he reaches under the bed to get something. He pulls out a small, flat rectangular shape neatly wrapped in green paper. "I meant to give this to you yesterday, but with everything going on I didn't think you would really care if you waited until now." He hands it to me.

I open it carefully. I see the corner of something wooden and open the rest of it to see a picture frame with a picture already in it. The frame is obviously handmade. I look at the picture and see one that Emily took just a couple of weeks ago. Paul and I are at the beach. Paul is smiling at the camera as I plant a kiss on his cheek. It's probably my favorite picture of us.

"I love this, Paul. Thank you." I kiss him. "Did you make the frame?"

"Yeah. We have some scrape wood in the back that I used. I told you I can use a saw pretty well."

"I love it. But I think I might need you to hang it."

"No problem. I can do that. Do you want to go out for breakfast? A little celebration, I guess. Just the two of us."

"Yeah, that sounds good. Can I get a shower first, though? I'm sweaty."

"Yeah, you can shower up here. And then we can go."

Paul gets me a towel and leaves me to shower. I am so glad that the whole Victoria thing is done. I don't have to worry about her anymore and neither does the pack. Paul doesn't have to worry whenever I'm not with someone from the pack and I don't have to worry about anyone getting killed or seriously hurt. Emily and Kim can stop worrying, too. Although, Kim was never really worrying about the pack actually being out there. She knows that they're strong and didn't worry about them fighting the vampires. She was just more concerned with them doing something stupid because they can get cocky and overconfident sometimes. But Emily and I were always worrying about the safety of the pack. Not just Sam and Paul, but the whole pack. We're all a family. A very abnormal family, in which most of us turn into giant werewolves and kill vampires, but we're all a family, just the same.

I step out of the shower and get dressed. I dry my hair off with the towel as much as I can since I know there probably isn't a hair dryer in this house. I dress in the same clothes that I wore yesterday and step out. Paul goes in to take a shower and we go out for breakfast after he gets out.

We go to a little locally owned dinner in town. It's not far and the weather is nice, so we decide to take the short little morning walk, hand-in-hand. The woman at the front leads us to a table and our waitress comes shortly after to take our food and drink order. As we eat, I ask, "So, everything was going on at the beach and it was so loud. Wouldn't the people living in the other houses near by have heard everything going on and looked out the windows, or whatever? I mean, it wasn't exactly secretive."

"I know. We all know that. As far as I know, everyone in La Push knows about the situation. They know about us and the vampires and they know that we've been trying to get Victoria for a while. Everyone had been warned that if they heard or saw anything that they need to stay away. The only person that doesn't know anything is Embry's mom. But they live on the border of La Push, far enough away that she wouldn't have heard anything."

"Don't you think she should know by now? She is his mother and she lives here. She should know about the pack, especially since Embry is in it."

"Do you know how many times even Sam has tried to convince the elders of that? The elders won't give in. They said that since she's not Quiluete and she doesn't know who his dad is, we can't tell her about us. Embry is mad at the elders because of it. Embry wants her to know about us, and he keeps getting in trouble because she doesn't know. She thinks that he sneaks out of the house every time he's on patrol and there's nothing anyone can do about it except for the elders. But they won't let us tell her. I think it's stupid just as much as you and everyone else does."

"So what happens now? Obviously, unless the Cullens or some other vampires come by, there really isn't anything to do anymore."

"No, we still have people to protect. Sam texted me while you were in the shower. We'll still have patrols every night. Nothing like before. It'll only be one person a night and we're just going to do a run around the perimeter and inside of La Push, then we'll be done for the night. Really, it shouldn't take more than an hour every night. And then we can go back home, assuming we don't pick anything up. Really, it's just a precautionary."

"Good. You guys can rest more and not be so stressed about school and work. And parents and imprints can stop worrying about your safety."

"And now I can stop worry about yours. And that's the most important thing that matters."

"You know, you have to stop putting all of the protection on me. You need be safe, too."

"But you're easy to break. I heal fast, and you don't. I can better protect myself than you can."

"I know. But I hate all of the attention being on me."

"Bella, you're my girlfriend. You should know by now that the attention is always going to be on you and not me."

"True." I settle. "I guess I should be getting used to it by now." He can be so difficult sometimes. "But really, I want you to look out for yourself just as much as you look out for me."

"I will. I can't get myself hurt and not be able to be with you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I couldn't protect you, first."

"Just promise me that you won't do anything stupid or life threatening because of me."

He shakes his head. "You know I can't promise that. Just like Sam and Jared can't promise that for Emily and Kim."


	29. Chapter 29

Two months have gone by since the wolves killed Victoria. Life has been great without having to worry about her. With her being gone and Paul not having to work as much because of the colder weather, we've gotten to spend more time together and spend it focusing on us. We don't need to talk about what's going on with Victoria because she isn't an issue anymore. Paul and everyone else in the pack is so much calmer about everything. No more stress of vampires ever again, hopefully.

Emily invited Charlie and I to have Thanksgiving dinner with the whole pack. Surprisingly, Charlie decided to come. I pull up to the house and see all of the cars. How in the world are we all going to fit in this house? With the entire pack, plus Charlie, Billy, Nick, Harry and Sue, I have a feeling it's going to be a tight fit.

Charlie and I walk in and put our coats up. Charlie has only met Jake and Paul, so to say that he's a little intimidated by the size of the other boys and Leah might be a little bit of an understatement. He knew that Paul and Jake are big, but I don't think he anticipated the size of everyone else. Of course, there is a ton of food and he's even more surprised at how many times Leah and the boys get up to get food.

Charlie gets introduced to the whole pack not long after we get to the house. He seems to like everyone, but who knows with Charlie. He'll probably be watching everyone while we're here. I do think that he likes Emily, though, but who doesn't love Emily? Charlie meets Nick for the first time and I think it went well. That's a good thing. Charlie talks to him and the rest of the adults almost the entire time that we're at the house. It doesn't surprise me that he introduces himself to the pack and then just hangs with who he knows. I guess I'm like him in a way. I never was a social butterfly, and still now I'm not. The only ones that I really feel comfortable socializing with is the pack.

Charlie takes my car and leaves shortly after eating. With it being a holiday, he's taking a night shift. Charlie asks if I'm ready to go, but Paul offers to take me home. After dessert and talking for a couple hours, Paul and I decide to leave. Before he backs out of the driveway, I ask if he wants to stay at my house for the night since Charlie will be gone and he'll come home and go straight to bed in the morning. We stop by his house quickly so that he can get some clothes and then we go to mine.

Paul takes his stuff to my room before one of us forgets about it. We don't need Charlie to suspect something and get pissed off about it. Who knows what Charlie would say or think if he knew that Paul and I were sleeping in the same bed together. And we aren't even having sex, but I don't think that would matter to him. Charlie, I think, tends to overreact sometimes about things like this. I'm sure Edward still remembers when Charlie said something about him not wanting grandchildren anytime soon. That was over a year ago, but still, I think that still applies to Charlie. Goodness forbid I do anything scandalous like date mythical creatures. I know, I know. "You're still my little girl." he would say. But I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself.

"It's getting colder outside." I say and move away from the window.

"For you, it is. It's nice for me, though." Paul wraps his arms around me.

"Not all of us can run a temperature of 108, remember."

"All the more reason I get to cuddle with you." He smiles.

"True. When Charlie isn't around we can. I don't think either of us want to see what he'd do or say to you if he saw us cuddled on his couch, though. He's the one that scares me."

"Bella, he can't be that bad. I thought you said he likes me."

"I said he likes you more than he did Edward. I don't know that he actually likes you, though, it is Charlie and he is Chief of Police. Honestly, I think the only person that he would approve of is Jake, though he still kind of holds a grudge against him, I think, from when he joined the pack and basically just left me in my still semi-depressed state. Charlie still thinks I'm his little girl."

"You always will be. You're his only daughter. His only child. Of course, he's always going to want to hold onto you. He just wants the best."

"I know, I know. But I'm a big girl. I can do things for myself."

"Hm. Not quite. Keep yourself out of trouble with vampires and werewolves. Walk without tripping over air. There are somethings that I think you still need help with."

"Ok, maybe a few things. But for the most part, I can do things without getting hurt or almost killed."

"Exactly. You never cease to amaze me, Bella."

"Your hair is getting kind of long." I notice and pull from behind. "I kind of like it."

"It needs cut. It's a pain. The longer it gets, the longer the fur gets. And the more dirt, sticks, and tangles it gets."

"Oh. Is that why Jake cut his hair when he joined you guys?"

"Yeah, Embry, too."

"So, when you stop phasing, will you grow it out? I like it a little longer."

"Maybe a little. But not much. I hate long hair. Probably not any longer than what it is right now. But I guess I can, just for you." He looks at the clock and then back down at me. "I have to go run the perimeter. I'll be back in an hour." He leans down a little to kiss me. "I love you."

"I love you, too." I say and he runs out the front door and into his . I wait out on the porch and watch him drive off towards La Push to take his car back so Charlie doesn't know he's here.

I shiver at the cold and go inside. I change into some sweat pants and a t-shirt to sleep in. I go back downstairs to do the dishes while Paul is gone. I don't realize how fast the time has gone by until I see Paul coming out from the woods wearing only his cut off shorts. I still don't understand why their temperature is so high, even with them being werewolves.

He comes in as I finish putting the last plate away. "Are you cold?" he asks, looking at me. "You usually wear shorts when we're together."

"You were gone. I got cold. I'll probably change, though. You're my personal space heater, especially now that it's getting colder."

"Glad to be of service. I guess that just means that you'll have to stay at my place more often this winter."

"I'm ok with that." I smile and kiss him. The kiss lasts longer than usual, us just standing in the middle of the kitchen. His hands go around my waist and mine go his neck as we continue kissing.

Paul picks me up and sets me out the counter. I squeal a little at the unexpectedness as he does and he only lets out a small laugh. His lips move to my neck and he says, "I love you, Bella."

"I love you, too. Why don't you say we take this upstairs."

"Bella, are you sure?" He looks at me.

"Yes. Absolutely. I love you."

"I don't have a-."

"Shh." I say and put a finger on his lips. "It's ok. I'm on the pill."

"I don't want to if you're not ready."

"I am ready. Come on." I hop down from the counter and lead him upstairs.


	30. Chapter 30

My eyes flutter open and I feel something gliding across my arm. I look and see one of Paul's fingers making little designs on my arm. I move my head to look at him and plant a chaste kiss on his lips. "Good morning." I say.

"Good morning, beautiful." He kisses the top of my head. "Last night was," he tries to find the right word to say.

"Amazing." I finish for him.

"Yeah, amazing is the right word."

"What time is it?"

"Almost eight. Your dad is already in bed. I heard him come up about an hour ago."

"How long have you been up?"

"Since he came home. I think he was trying to be quiet, but I can hear better than most, so it work me up when he came up the steps."

"He didn't come in, did he? Does he know you're here?" I started freaking out a little.

"No, Bella." He chuckles. "He didn't come in. We're safe."

"Oh, thank God. You should've woken me up if you've just been laying here for an hour."

"You looked so peaceful. I didn't want to disturb you. You're cute when you sleep."

"You're cute, too. All the time."

"Since it's officially after Thanksgiving, I think that now is the right time to ask you what you want for Christmas."

"Paul," I say after a minute and look away from him. "You've given me enough already. Victoria is dead and out of the picture forever. You've helped me so much in the past five and a half months. And you've always stuck by my side through everything that has happened. I don't have anything to give back to you, so I can't let you get me anything for Christmas."

"That's not true, Bella. You've given me everything by simply living. If anything, you've helped me through everything. You didn't freak out or leave when I told you about us. You took all of my ranting about not having Victoria dead a long time ago. You may have gotten frustrated at us a few times about it, but you've stuck around the whole time. You're the strongest woman I know, Bella. I can't imagine someone else wouldn't run away screaming through all of this. I used to think that Kim and Emily might run away at some point, even. You have given me everything. And there is nothing that I can give you that will ever be enough to pay you back for just being here, despite the circumstances." He looks me in the eye the entire time that he says this. He leans his head down a little and kisses me when he's finished with his little speech.

"Well, since we can't agree on the subject of owing each other, why don't we just not get each other anything. We can just be with each other over the holiday. It's less stress and we don't have to worry about money. We can just enjoy the fact that we have each other."

"Have I ever told you how smart you are, too? You're always coming up with things that never would have even crossed my mind. Not getting each other presents sounds perfect. No need to worry about what each other wants and no need to worry about how much we owe each other."

"You're pretty smart, too." I say.

"You don't have to go in to work today, do you?"

"No, I made sure to get off. I don't want to work when all of the crazy people are out for Black Friday. I don't know how I managed to get off, but I'm glad I did."

"Me, too. More of you to myself. I don't like sharing you." He pulls me closer to him.

I laugh lightly into his bare chest. "You have to share me sometimes. It's only fair to Charlie."

"Yeah, but I'm sure you'll be out of this house at some point and I'll get you all to myself."

"You better keep that in mind, Lahote. You can't just say something if you don't intend on keeping that promise."

"Oh, I plan on it. I'll have you all to myself one day, in a house that we can call our own and we don't have to worry about other people being in the house and we can do whatever we want."

"Very true. And I look forward to that day. What are we doing today? I think we should do something before Charlie gets up. Or at least get dressed."

"As much as I would love to just stay here all day, I think you're right. Your dad would freak if he saw us like this."

Paul and I get up a few minutes later. He jumps in the shower after me and we decide to go back to his house before Charlie wonders why he's here. Even after almost six months, he's still weird about it. I think Edward putting me through that terrible depression and then Jake leaving me really screwed with him and now he has trust issues with just about any guy I come into contact with. Well, he can get over it. Paul and I aren't going to leave each other, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Nick is at the office taking care of business for the day, so he's not going to be home until late. It's chilly out and there isn't much to do. Paul and I cuddle up on the couch and pop in a movie. When it ends, the credits scroll and neither of us say anything or move. Paul keeps me close to him with his arms wrapped around me and our legs tangled together. I trace little designs on his strong arm, much like he was this morning.

He kisses the top of my head and mumbles, "I love you, Bella."

"I love you, too. I love these moments between us best. When we aren't doing anything and it's just quiet. When we don't have to do something, but just enjoy each others presence."

"I enjoy them, too. Every moment spent with you is a good one. Even the crazy moments and the ones when we're frustrated and we want to kill each other. But it's all worth it."

"Yeah, it is all worth it. Even all of the craziness that I had before you because all of those crazy times with the vampires and whatnot led me to you. And I can't ask for anything more than that. For being with you through everything that has been going on."

"And I am never going to leave your side, Bella. I will always be here, through thick and thin. No matter what."

"Good, because I don't want to go through what I did in the past again. Too much depression and you came and took care of all of that. You make me happy."

He looks me in the eye with the most sincere look I think I have ever seen him make. "Bella, you make me more than happy. You make me look forward to each day because I get to see your beautiful face. I get to protect you, though maybe not as much now, but I will always protect you from whatever dangers may come your way. I love you too much to let anything bad happen to you." He lifts my chin up with a finger and places his warm lips to mine.

"I love you, too. A lot."


	31. Chapter 31

I had Thanksgiving weekend off, but I've had to work almost everyday since in the last three weeks and the rest of the upcoming weeks until Christmas don't look any different. The store has been crazy, and I can only imagine what the mall looks like in the bigger cities. I wasn't expecting a sports store to be this crazy and busy before Christmas. Expect the unexpected, I guess. Thankfully, it hasn't been a lot of hours this week. My boss said that the amount of days that I'm working allows for less hours per day and that made me so happy when I found that out.

Charlie comes home from what he said was a long day at the station. He takes his dinner plate and goes to the living room to watch TV and eat dinner. I silently eat my chicken at the dinner table and fill the sink to wash the dishes. Charlie brings his plate in and insists that he do the dishes tonight. He says that he wants to give me a break since I've been doing enough this week with work. I let him and go to the basement to finish the laundry I had started on earlier.

I finish the laundry and take a shower, standing there for just an extra minute because the water is so warm. I walk back into my bedroom as I see my phone light up and rush over to answer the call from Paul. "Hello." I say.

"Hey. I miss you. I feel like we haven't seen each other much these past few weeks."

"I know. I feel the same. They've had me working almost every day."

"Yeah, I've had to work, too. But we should be pretty much done after this house and we're almost finished with it. Do you know what you're doing for Christmas? Are you and Charlie doing anything?"

"I don't know what I'm doing. Charlie has to work all day, so I'll probably just be at home for the day."

"No, you won't. You can come over here. It's just going to be dad and I. Jake and Billy might come over, too, for lunch or something. You don't want to spend Christmas by yourself, do you?"

"No. I was kind of hoping that you would ask me that question, actually."

"Good." I can hear the smile in his voice.

"I hope you're not planning anything. We already agreed on no presents."

"I'm not. I know what we agreed on."

"I'm holding you accountable to that, Lahote."

"Same here, Swan."

"So, did you call me for anything else? Or just to ask me about Christmas?"

"No reason in particular. I just miss your voice."

"I miss yours, too. Are you doing anything tomorrow? I get off at two."

"I don't get off until four and then I'll come home and get a shower, probably. But I should be ready by 5:30. Maybe we can go to dinner or something. Does that sound good? Or do you want to do something else?"

"Yeah. That sounds perfect. Can we go look at Christmas lights? I really want to see some." I practically beg.

I hear him laugh on the other line. "Yeah. We can drive around and look."

"Yay. What time?"

"I'll pick you up at 5:45."

"Ok. I'll be ready. I love you."

"I love you, too, babe." He hangs up and seeing that it's getting late, I go to bed since I have to be at work at eight-thirty to open at ten.

I wake up early in the morning and trudge my way to the bathroom to get ready. It's only six hours today, but I really just cannot wait until the holidays are over and things calm down some. Seriously, why is a sports store so busy? This isn't a clothing store or an electronic store. I wish I could just quit my job.

Thankfully, it's one of the easier days that we've had, so things are a bit calmer. This makes me really happy as things aren't so crazy. It makes the day go faster and soon I'm on my way back home for a few hours until Paul and I leave. I change out of my work clothes and put my coat by the door. I plop down on the couch with the remote and find that a movie is starting, so I settle with it until I hear a knocking at the door and run to answer. Paul takes a step in, gives me a kiss and assists me with my coat. He takes my hand and leads me to his truck, helping me in since I still have issues with it being so tall.

We enjoy dinner together, catching up on everything that has been going on for the past few weeks. Thankfully things should slow down soon for both of us, giving us more time to do things together. I love him and I don't want to see things go bad for us if we can't be together.

He helps me slip my coat back on after dinner and we get back in the truck. He takes my hand with the one that isn't on the steering wheel. I thought that we were just going to drive around to look at all of the Christmas lights, but he pulls into a neighborhood and parks on the curb. He helps me out of the truck and takes my hand, leading me on the sidewalk to look at all of the houses with their beautiful lights decorating the streets.

"It's beautiful out tonight." I say.

"It is, but not as beautiful as you are. Your name suits you well." Paul responds.

We come up to a house and I just can't help but slightly look through the big front window without being noticed. I see a couple smiling happily as one puts a few ornaments on the tree and the other brings in a mug of something warm to drink. They look so happy and for just a second, I can't help but imagine that being Paul and I. Decorating the tree and stuffing gifts under it. We would be happily married and have our own house where we could do whatever we wanted with it. I don't know that I could imagine our little girl in her Christmas dress or our little boy in his Christmas attire either because I'm still not sure about wanting kids. Right now, I am perfectly content with just having Paul all to myself and as selfish as it may seem, I don't want to have to share him with someone else. Paul notices what I see and he must be thinking the same thing.

"That's going to be us someday." He places a kiss on top of my head and we continue walking.


	32. Chapter 32

Two days before Christmas I have to work. I'm glad that this is my last day working for a few days and I can just catch up on what's going on in the world. I've kind of been out of touch lately because I've been working so much since Thanksgiving and I'm thankful that Christmas is going to give me a break.

Plus, I'm just really ready to get out of work today. Today is the last day that we're open until two days after Christmas and it was just a really busy day. Again, I'm surprised that a sports store is this busy for Christmas. Not only were we busy today, but I've had to work with a guy named Mason all week. Mason and I don't exactly get along. He's been working there a few months longer than I have been and he thinks that he's better at everything than I am. He is always trying to tell me how to do something when I already know how to do it. I've caught once or twice refolding clothes that I've already folded when they were perfectly folded.

This week has been no different other than it's been so busy and he's up my butt even more. One of the managers is quitting and Mason is up for the job. Fantastic. If he becomes my manager, I might kill him. Him and I are in the back doing inventory together while the others are working. Spending a whole five hours with him alone doing this isn't exactly my ideal work day. It's mostly silent, but he occasionally peeks over my shoulder when he walks by to see what I was doing. Finally I give him a dirty look and he stops checking on me.

"So, Bella, what would you think if I became manager?" He asks while we're closing.

"Um, I don't know. I guess you would be good at it." If I wasn't working with you, I add as an afterthought.

"I find out after break, so I guess we'll see then."

"Well, good luck, I guess."

"Bella, I'm not stupid. I know that you don't like me."

"You're right, Mason. I don't see why you think that we are in some kind of competition over who the better employee is because, honestly I don't really care about who's better."

"Everything is a competition. You should know that. Have a nice couple of days off." He walks out to his car as I lock the door.

"Asshole." I say when he's in the car and out of ear shot.

* * *

On Christmas Eve I spend the day baking some cookies to take to Paul's house for lunch tomorrow. Paul asked if I could make dessert, but specifically asked for the chocolate chip ones. "They're my favorite." He says whenever I make them. So I told him I would be happy to make them. I make another dessert, too, just in case.

Charlie is working all of today and tomorrow, and I feel kind of bad that he doesn't really get to have a Christmas. I make him his favorite meal and put it in the fridge so that he can take it to work for his lunch tomorrow. He deserves some little bit of Christmas. I also put his neatly wrapped gift under the tree for him. I got him some new stuff for when he goes fishing and I think he'll be happy with it.

I look out the window and see snow falling and sticking to the ground. It's getting heavy already and I think that maybe we will have a white Christmas. It has always been my favorite holiday. I just love the smells that are always present during the holidays. Pine trees, peppermint, the smell of baking sweets. And I've grown to like the cold in the time that I've lived in Forks. I guess it's starting to grow on me and I am perfectly content with that.

But I've only started liking it since I met Paul. Once Edward and I started dating, I just kind of tolerated the cold and rain because I loved him. Once everything happened and he left, I started hating it again, but I didn't know if that was because Forks held too many memories of Edward or if it was just because I never really liked Forks in the first place. But Paul just makes everything better, even if it's only a little bit. Besides, I don't need to worry about the cold anymore since I have Paul as my own personal space heater. I guess Forks isn't so bad. Edward isn't here, so that alone makes it a thousand times better.

* * *

I put the desserts in my truck and head off to Paul's house for lunch on Christmas day. I leave a little early because the snow is still falling and the roads aren't the greatest. Paul called me earlier this morning and asked if I wanted him to pick me up, but I told him that I would be fine. I get there right on time and Paul comes out to help me get the food out of the truck.

"Merry Christmas." He says with a kiss.

"Merry Christmas to you, too." I say back. "I brought your cookies."

"They're my favorite." He says. I'm not surprised; it's what he always says.

Nick greets me when I walk into the kitchen and set the stuff on the table after Paul. Billy, Jake and one of Jake's sisters, Rachel, come in shortly after I do. I haven't seen Rachel in a long time. I used to play with her and her twin, Rebecca, when I would come back to visit Charlie during the summer. We were never really close, though, because all three of us were too shy to say much of anything. Most of our "play dates" were in silence, with maybe only a few words to each other.

Nick pulls the ham out of the oven and we all enjoy a great lunch with all six of us sitting around the dinner table. Conversation is thrown around about Rachel's studies at the University of Washington and Billy says that Rebecca and her husband are expecting their first child in late July.

Rachel and I clean up from lunch while the boys go in the living room and talk about who knows what. Rachel and I catch up a little bit. She asks me how Charlie is doing, and how work is going for me, but there isn't much for me to say there. She also asks me why I moved back to Forks, and I tell her about how Renee got remarried so I decided to spend some time with Charlie. Her, Jake and Billy leave shortly after we get done cleaning up, so just Nick, Paul and I are at the house.

A few hours later, Paul and I are sitting on the couch talking. He gets up and goes upstairs, coming down with his shoes and coat. "Let's take a walk, Bella."


	33. Chapter 33

As much as I hated the cold and snow, when I was living with Renee in Phoenix, I always did wish for a white Christmas. Crazy as it might seem for me, I always did want to have just one Christmas where snow covered the streets. Living in Arizona, there was no way that was going to happen, so I never really have had a white Christmas. Last year was the first chance I had at it, and the snow hardly even stuck to the ground. So between the snow and getting to spend Christmas with Paul this year, it really has been the best Christmas that I've had in a long time. Since Paul and I decided not to get gifts for each other, there was less stress with what to get him, if he would like it or not, and how much it would cost me. It's just a chill day spent with Paul and his dad, plus Jake, Billy and Rachel.

Paul asks if I want to go on a walk with him and I jump at the opportunity to go out in the snow with him. It gives us some alone time, too, since we've been around people almost all day. I get my coat and shoes on. Paul and I intertwine our hands as we walk out of the house and down the street, going nowhere in particular. We don't say anything for the first few minutes of the walk. He gives my hand a light squeeze every few minutes and I squeeze back.

"I love you." He breaks the silence.

"I love you, too." I say back.

"So, did you enjoy yourself today?"

"Yeah. It was good catching up with Rachel and everything. It would have been nice if Charlie could have joined us, but he has a job to do, so I guess I really cant stop him from trying to protect the town."

"No, you can't. He's doing his job, though. It's what he loves. And I'm sure he's probably more comfortable at the station than he would be if he was in the house. Even though there was less people today and he knows all of us, unlike Thanksgiving. He'll come around, I'm sure. He's gone how many years by himself? He just has to get back in the swing of things." Paul takes a short glance at me and looks back at the ground. "He's going to have to." He mumbles more to himself, I think.

The last thing that he said made me think. What does he mean by Charlie is going to have to get back in the swing of things? Does Paul know something that I don't know? I let my thoughts ponder this for a while as I consider this. Maybe he just thinks that since Paul and I are getting more serious, that he's going to be around a lot more and Charlie will just have to get used to Paul being around more. That's true. Charlie still isn't exactly fond of Paul. He likes him more than he liked Edward, but I just don't see him being happy that I'm with someone other than Jake. Jake helped me through a lot after Edward left and I don't think that impact will ever leave Charlie's mind. Jake is a good friend. He really is, but even before the imprint, I just couldn't see myself with him. We will always be friends and nothing more than that. I think that Charlie definitely likes Paul way better than he will ever like Edward, but I think that Charlie will always hold on to that small hope that Jake and I will be together in the future.

"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe I just thought that he would be back in it by now. I've been here for almost two years. I thought that maybe he would come around by now and be more social."

Paul puts his arm around my shoulder as we walk and I feel him press his lips to the top of my head. "It's not your fault. That's just how Charlie is. You can't force him to be social all the time. If I remember correctly, you told me that you were shy up until you moved here."

"Yeah, but I was almost forced into it. Eric introduced himself immediately and then his friends introduced themselves. I didn't really get the chance to be shy. But I kind of started to push them away some when I started dating Edward because I was always with him. And after he left, I was so depressed that I started ignoring everyone except for Jake. I think Jake was the first person that I didn't feel forced into being friends with. And then you came along." I smile at him and he smiles in return. "And I didn't feel forced into liking anyone because I didn't need to be. I like everyone in La Push. Everyone is like a big family and I never had that. It's a nice feeling to have."

"Well, I'm glad that we are all hospitable to you and that you feel comfortable. And nothing is going to change that."

"I'm glad, too. Because I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Not for a long time."

"How long is a long time?" He says in a tone that's half joking, but I can definitely hear seriousness it in.

"Forever. I don't want to go anywhere that isn't with you."

Paul suddenly stops and turns, taking my hands in his and faces me. "Bella, I hope you know that I feel the same way. I don't want to go anywhere without you by my side. There aren't enough things in the world to take my thoughts away from you when I'm not with you. And there isn't anything that I wouldn't do for you. I hope you know that. I love you too much to let anything happen to you or to let something happen that would tear us apart. I don't want that to happen."

I open my mouth to say something in response, but he doesn't let me. He puts a finger to my lips for a second before continuing. "I know we agreed on no Christmas presents." He reaches into his coat pocket and brings out a little red box as he gets down on one knee. I gasp and the surprise and put my free hand over my mouth as a tear of happiness starts to form. "But, Bella, I love you with everything that's in me. I don't care about the imprint nonsense because I truly believe that even if it didn't exist that we would have somehow found each other. So, please, will you marry me?"

I can't even form the right word to say, so I simply nod my head up and down with a smile on my face. I see his beautiful smile break out, too, as he slides the ring on my finger, which fits perfectly. "This was my mother's ring. My dad told me to give it to the special girl once I found her. And I think I did finally find her." He gets off of the ground and I jump into his arms, pulling him in for a kiss.


	34. Chapter 34

"Does your dad know?" I ask as Paul and I continue to walk down the road. We turned around and now we're walking back to the house. Paul has my right hand in his and I look down at the ring on my left every few seconds.

"Of course he does. I had to get the ring from him. Your dad knows, too." He adds after a pause.

"What? Charlie knows? When did you talk to him?"

"Yeah. I went to your house while you were working a few weeks ago and talked to him."

"Well I'm glad that he didn't scare you off or anything."

"No, not at all. You know what he told me? He said that after the leech left and then after Jake left you, he started having trust issues. He started having trust issues, not just with guys that you know, but anyone because he was afraid that you were going to get close with someone and then that person would just leave like Edward and Jake did. He admitted to me that it took a while before he could actually trust that I wouldn't leave. He saw from the beginning that you're happier with me than you were with Edward, but he still worried that I would leave and you would go back to your old ways. He said that he started to gain some trust when I was there taking care of you when you were sick that one day and he wasn't there. Or when I wrapped your knee when you fell on the trail that one day.

"He said, 'Paul, I didn't like you much then just because of all the hurt Bella has gone through, but I know that Edward wouldn't have come over at 2:30 in the morning to take care of her. I don't know why, but I just have a feeling that he was somewhat controlling. I never did like him, especially after he left. It has taken a while, but I can see that you make Bella happier than anyone else has and I feel like I can trust you to keep her this happy. Just don't screw this up like Edward did.'"

"See, I told you he likes you. It just takes some time with him."

"I know. I guess I should stop underestimating you when it comes to your dad."

"He's actually not the one that I'm worried about."

"Really? Who are you worried about?"

"My mom. I mean, she would probably love you. She loves everyone. But she has an aversion to young marriage. It has to do with the fact that her and my dad got married young and it didn't end well."

"That was your parents, though. We aren't them. Things are different. A lot different."

"I know. I'm glad that things are different. I never even considered marriage until I met you, to be honest."

"Not even when you were with him?"

"Nope, not even then. You should feel special. It was never a topic that came up between us and I'm glad that it didn't. Knowing him, he probably would've wanted it and I think that would have just made things worse. Now that I look back, he was controlling and selfish. Everything that you aren't. He wouldn't even let me drive myself to school, half the time. I thought he did that stuff because he loved me, but now I realize that he was just controlling and selfish and everything that you aren't."

"I guess I am special." He leans over for a second and I feel him press his lips to the top of my head. "Are you cold?" I must be shivering or something and not realize it.

"A little." I don't lie.

"We're almost back. Let's get you warmed up."

We walk back to the house and Paul takes my coat to hang up while I take my shoes off. Nick is upstairs getting ready for a Christmas party at work. "Why don't you go pop a movie in and I will get us something warm to drink. Sound good?" Paul says.

"Yeah. That sounds good."

Paul goes into the kitchen to get the drinks and I go the opposite way into the living room.. I scan the shelf that is full of movies, half of them I don't think I've ever heard of. I finally find one. _Elf. _It seems appropriate. I put it in the DVD player and settle on the couch, watching the previews until Paul comes in.

"What are we watching, Bella?" Paul walks in and hands me a mug full of hot chocolate. He sits down and wraps an arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer to him.

"_Elf. _It seems appropriate since it's Christmas."

"It's my favorite Christmas movie, you know."

"No, I didn't know that." I take a sip of my drink as Paul presses play on the movie. I move a little closer to him, still being a little cold from our walk, but the drink helps to warm me up a little.

A half hour later, Nick comes down the stairs to leave for the Christmas party. He's dressed up in a black tux, something that I've never seen him wear before. I never could imagine him in one. "Wow, dad. I haven't seen you dress this nice in a long time." Paul comments.

"Yeah, well, don't expect to see me in one until your wedding. I take it you said yes, Bella." He smiles and I can't help but smile back.

"Of course I said yes."

"I'm glad that you did, Bella." He stands at a mirror, adjusting his tie. "I am more than happy to welcome you to the family. As if you weren't a part of this family from the beginning. You two are good for each other. I'm glad that Paul has you."

"Yeah, I'm glad that I have him, too."

Nick leaves and says that he probably won't be back until late. Paul and I continue to watch the movie, both of us making a few comments about it every once in a while. Once it's over, Paul turns the TV off and we both admire the new piece of jewelry on me. "It fits perfect. I'm glad I don't have to get it sized." Paul says after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah. Your dad had good taste when he bought it. I love it."

"I thought you would. I know that you like things that are kind of older, vintage. I thought my mother's ring would be perfect for you. Have you thought of a date? You know people are going to ask when you tell them."

"Yeah, I've thought about it. How about August 15th? Does that sound good?" I look up into his brown eyes.

"That sounds perfect."

Paul leans in for a kiss that lingers for a bit. After lingering it gets a little more intense. A little more passionate. His arms wrap around to my back and I feel his hands go under my shirt. Soon he moves so that he's hovering over me without breaking the kiss. He moves his lips to my cheek, down my jaw line and finally to my neck, where he nips a little, only teasingly.

"Paul," I laugh a little. "Not here on the couch. If we're going to do this, let's go up to your room."

"What's wrong with the couch? I like the couch."

"Well, for one, it isn't exactly big enough. And what if your dad comes home?"

"He won't be back until late. Probably not until midnight or later. And it's only nine. We have plenty of time. I guess you do have a point, though, with this couch being small."

"Yeah, and I don't think your dad would appreciate it if he found out we had sex on his couch."

"Hm, probably not. Let's go to my room, I guess." Paul throws me over his shoulder, a move I wasn't expecting at all, and carries me upstairs.


End file.
